UPDATED — AOTY: Male and Female Championship Rounds set

Luke Modrovsky, Sports Editor|April 11, 2018

The Semifinal Round of action has concluded in the 2018 Beacon Sports Staff Athlete of the Year tournament.

For the Males, it’s basketball’s Marcus Robinson (1) taking on football’s Luke Wood (6). On the Female side, field hockey’s Haley Gayoski (12) will face softball’s Gracen Staunton (3).

Here is the statement released by the Beacon Sport Staff:

“First off, congratulations to both Gracen Staunton and Courtney Stanley for putting on a great display. The passion from within both of their fan bases is truly special.

“After further investigation, The Beacon Sports Staff has a reason to believe that a total of 116 votes cast in the Gracen Staunton/Courtney Stanley poll were made through a non-traditional form of voting.

“The Staff has made the decision to cancel those votes out, as they violate the spirit of the tournament. After cancelling the 116 votes out and reverting to the 800 vote mark, the staff has concluded that the voting was indeed tied at 50%.
“Per tournament rules, in the event of a tie, the higher seed will advance. Gracen Staunton, the No. 3 seed, will advance to the Championship Round.
“The Championship Round for both Male and Female AOTY will begin tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and continue until 11:59 p.m.”

During the final seconds of the Staunton/Stanley matchup, over 100 votes were cast. Staunton was the apparent winner, but the staff decided to put things on hold while the matter is looked into.

From @WilkesBeacon on Twitter:

“We are going to investigate the additional 100+ votes in the final seconds of this poll. We promise to do so as quickly as possible. We hope to announce a certified winner shortly.

“At this time, the Sports Staff is not able to certify a winner. The situation will be addressed as quickly as possible, but we will most likely not have a conclusion until noon today. The Championship Round will temporarily be put on hold until this is addressed.”

It was also announced that the other three matchups would not be affected and are final

For full results, and the updated bracket, click here.

The Championship Round has been put on hold temporarily. The Beacon Sports Staff felt it was in the best interest of the tournament to run both the Male and Female Championship Rounds concurrently.

The 17-athlete tournament features all of the previous athlete of the weeks in a seeded bracket format similar to the NCAA tournament.

The tournament is broken into the same two categories as the typical athlete of the week segments, featured in every edition of The Beacon.

The champion of both categories will be featured in a full page spread in the final edition of The Beacon on Apr. 17.

The competition is being conducted utilizing Twitter polls via @wilkesbeacon. The winner of each poll advances to next round.

In the event of a tie, the higher seed will advance.

For coverage of the tournament, check out the following Twitter accounts:
Luke Modrovsky, Sports Editor — @LukeModrovsky
Ben Mandell, Asst. Sports Editor — @BenMandell55
Alex Kielar, Asst. Sports Editor — @alexkielar
Kirsten Peters, Staff Writer — @kirstenpetersss

Coverage will also be provided through media partner WCLH 90.7 FM — Wilkes University radio through @WCLH_radio and @WCLHsports.