Women's Basketball Wins 2023-24 EPIC Trophy

Photo Gallery Welcome Back BBQ (by Sandy King)

Eastern Illinois Athletics held its annual Welcome Back BBQ for student-athletes, coaches and staff on Sunday night as the semester officially kicked off with classes today (Monday, Aug. 19).  At the annual event EIU awarded its EPIC Trophy for the season while recognizing the four teams that captured Ohio Valley Conference Championships last season.   This year's EPIC Trophy Award winner was Women's Basketball, marking the second straight year the program has won the award and third time overall.  The top three teams in EPIC points this year were 1.) Women's Basketball, 2.) Women's Soccer and 3.) Men's soccer.   The four OVC Championship teams from last school year were men's cross country, women's cross country, volleyball and softball.   This also marked the second year the OVC also began honoring Community Service Award winners from each league institution with this year's winners from EIU being Chad Smith from men's soccer and Liz Galvin from women's soccer.   In the class room EIU again excelled in the OVC with 41 Academic Medal of Honor Award winners.  EIU had two teams win OVC team academic awards with women's soccer and women's track & field winning awards.   The Eastern Panthers In The Community Award (EPIC) was started in 2009 by the EIU athletic department to promote student-athlete involvement in the community and the campus as well as strive for overall personal development. Each team is awarded points on a varying scale throughout the year based on community service, academic excellence, and season accomplishments.