Grove City College has honored senior baseball player John Bini (Staten Island, N.Y./Xaverian) and senior women's soccer player Krista Heckman (Lock Haven, Pa./Central Mountain) as its respective Omicron Delta Kappa/Mortar Board Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year for the 2018-19 academic year. Bini and Heckman received their award Sunday night at the College's athletic awards celebration in Pew Fine Arts Center.
A three-time First Team All-Presidents' Athletic Conference honoree, Bini owns several notable pitching records at Grove City. He ranks first all-time at Grove City with 26 pitching victories, 318 innings pitched and 190 strikeouts. This season, Bini is 6-3 with a 3.33 earned run average. He leads the conference with 83 2/3 innings pitched and 11 games started. He is the reigning PAC Pitcher of the Week in the conference and has won each of his last six starts.
Grove City set program records with 26 regular season wins and 16 conference victories this year. In 2016, Bini helped Grove City win a program-record 27 games along with the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III title. As a sophomore in 2017, he earned the team's MVP award.
Bini also serves as the president of Grove City's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for the 2018-19 year. In that role, he has overseen numerous initiatives, including the PAC vs. North Coast Athletic Conference Change War last month, in which Grove City led all 19 colleges involved in monies raised. He also represented Grove City at the 2017 NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum.
Bini is majoring in Pre-K-4 Elementary Education. He has been named to the conference's Academic Honor Roll and is a three-time Dean's List honoree.
Bini is the third Grove City baseball player to be named Sportsman of the Year, joining Todd Alexander (1964) and Mike Ritter (2006).
Heckman became the first United Soccer Coaches All-American in Grove City women's soccer history last fall after she helped lead the Wolverines to the Presidents' Athletic Conference title and the second round of the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.
Heckman earned PAC Player of the Year, Eastern ECAC Offensive Player of the Year and First Team All-Great Lakes Region following the season. She scored 10 goals and led the team with eight assists from her forward position. The United Soccer Coaches also honored Heckman as a Scholar All-American. Grove City tied the program record with 17 victories, finishing the season with a 17-4-1 record, including an 8-0 mark against conference opponents.
Heckman played in 90 career games, making 65 starts. She finished her career with 25 goals and 15 assists. Grove City went 63-23-5 over the last four seasons and qualified for postseason play in each of Heckman's four seasons.
A nominee for Grove City College's Senior Woman of the Year award, Heckman has been inducted into Lambda Pi Eta communication honorary. She is majoring in communication studies and has been named to the Dean's List.
Grove City first awarded its Sportsperson of the Year award in 1948. In 1982, the College split the award into Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year.