JACKSONVILLE – For the first time in three years, Athletics Director Greg Seitz presented Eagle Owl Awards in person at Jacksonville State's Athletic Senior Banquet, honoring Lexie Libs, Darian Adams, Alexus Jimmerson and Jesus Montenegro at Pete Mathews Coliseum on Wednesday night.
 
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, JSU was unable to hold its annual banquet to honor graduating seniors in 2020 or 2021. This year's banquet honored both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 senior classes, along with the 2021-22 senior athletes. JSU's coveted Eagle Owl Award was presented virtually in the summer of 2020 to football standout Josh Brady and basketball star Chloe Long. On Wednesday, Seitz presented for the first time the recipients for 2020-21 in softball's Alexus Jimmerson and golf's Jesus Montenegro. The winners of this year's male and female Eagle Owl Awards were basketball's Darian Adams and volleyball's Lexie Libs.
 
The Eagle Owl Award, which was established in 1994, is given each year to a male and a female senior athlete, who possess several outstanding qualities. To be nominated, the student athlete must be a starter or important reserve during his/her senior season and carry a 2.5 cumulative GPA or higher. The student-athlete must excel in his or her sport, be a positive role model for others and exemplify the well-rounded student-athlete.
 
Adams spent two record-setting seasons with the Gamecocks after transferring from Troy University in 2020. Coming in to a program that finished 13-19 the season before his arrival, the Montgomery, Ala., native, became an instant spark for Jax State as a prolific scorer and helped navigate JSU to an 18-9 mark his first year during a Covid-shortened season. The Gamecocks only improved this past season, registering a 21-11 overall record and winning JSU's first Division I regular season conference championship in men's basketball with a 13-3 slate in the ASUN Conference.
 
Along with leading JSU in scoring, Adams led the Gamecocks in free throw percentage (83%) and steals (46), finished second on the team with 119 assists and third in rebounding with 160 boards as Jax State earned its second all-time appearance into the NCAA Tournament.
 
As a sports management graduate student, Adams carries a 3.66 graduate GPA. His career on the court includes First Team All-Conference selections in multiple league as a First-Team All-Ohio Valley Conference selection in 2021 and First-Team All-ASUN in 2022 to go along with back-to-back NABC (National Basketball Coaches Association) All-District honors.
 
His 15.4 point scoring average ranks as the third best during JSU's Division I era. He also owns the third-most points in a single season for the Division I era with his 477 points this past year. Overall, Adams finished with 901 career points for the Red and White in just two seasons, sitting just 27 shy of the school's Top 10 list. His high scoring was efficient as a career 41.5 percent field goal shooter, and 37.5 percent shooter from the outside. His 132 made three-pointers are good for eighth-place on JSU's Division I career list. In his final game, he became just the 11th Gamecock since 1995 to dish 200 career assists.
 
Adams is only the second men's basketball player to receive the Eagle Owl Award, after Jason Burnell won it in 2019.
 
Lexie Libs transferred to JSU in 2018 and played four seasons for the Gamecocks, finishing as one of the greatest players in program history. Graduating with a degree in Exercise Science and Wellness in May 2021, the Floyds Knobs, Indiana native, returned to JSU for her final year of eligibility in the fall of 2021 and maintained a 4.0 grade point average throughout the entirety of her career.
 
Her impact was quickly felt as the sophomore transfer started in all 32 matches and played in 123 sets in her first year at JSU. She finished with a team-high 1,290 assists and was named First Team All-OVC.
 
In 2019, Libs remained at the helm of JSU's offense and registered a team-high 1,178 assists while leading the Gamecocks to an OVC Regular Season Championship. She was once against selected to the All-OVC First Team while also being named OVC Setter of the Year. Following a delayed start to the 2020 season, Libs led JSU to back-to-back OVC Regular Season titles in the spring of 2021. In a COVID-shortened year she totaled 673 assists and 11.6 assists per set which ranked top-five in NCAA Division-I. For the third straight year Libs was named to the All-OVC First Team and was named the OVC Setter of the Year for the second consecutive season.
 
Libs capped off her career at JSU with her third Setter of the Year award in 2021 as the Gamecocks moved from the OVC to the ASUN Conference. She was also named an All-ASUN Second Team selection and helped lead JSU to a West Division Championship. In addition, Libs was named to the ASUN All-Academic Team after maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
 
In her final season at JSU, Libs recorded 1,172 assists and became just the fourth Gamecock in program history to reach 4,000-plus assists. She finished her career with 4,313 assists at JSU which is the third most all-time. Overall, Libs started in 112 matches for the Gamecocks and helped the squad to 79 wins, two OVC Regular Season Championships, and one ASUN West Division title. Lib's leaves JSU as the only player in program history to record 4,000-plus assists, 900-plus digs, and 200-plus kills.
 
She is the seventh volleyball player to win the Eagle Owl Award and the first since Mackenzie Rombach in 2019.
 


Alexus Jimmerson was named the Female Eagle Owl Award winner for the senior class of 2020-21 after a storied career on the softball diamond with the Gamecocks. The Jackson, Tenn., native played five seasons for head coach Jana McGinnis and led the Gamecocks to Ohio Valley Conference titles in three of those seasons. She was a key contributor in the Gamecocks winning the regular season and tournament titles in 2017, the tournament title in 2018 and the regular season crown in 2019.
 
Jimmerson was a First Team All-OVC performer as a utility player, earning respect for her accolades at the plate and in the circle, while also grabbing OVC Academic All-Conference honors. She is the only player in JSU history to earn conference Pitcher of the Week and Player of the Week in the same week after achieving the feat in April of 2021. That week, The Jackson, Tenn., product, hit .579 at the plate, while going 3-0 with a 0.93 earned run average in the circle.
 
She currently ranks among JSU's career leaders in hits (18th with 166), Doubles (eighth with 40), RBI (seventh with 119) and at bats (17th with 592). She also shined on the biggest stage, grabbing OVC All-Tournament honors twice in her career – in 2017 and in 2021, and put the Gamecocks on her back in the 2018 Tallahassee Regional, when she tossed a complete game and recorded the game-winning hit in the sixth inning to eliminate No. 15 Auburn and advance to the championship game.
 
Jimmerson graduated from JSU with a degree in Exercise Science and Wellness with a 3.12 GPA. She is the 11th member of the Gamecock softball team to win the Eagle Owl and the first since 2017.
 
Jesus Montenegro had one of the most storied careers of any golfer in Jacksonville State's storied men's golf program. The native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was a four-time First Team All-Ohio Valley Conference player for the Gamecocks, being recognized as one of the league's top players in every year that he teed it up for JSU.
 
He was a member of the OVC All-Newcomer Team in 2018, when he was named the OVC Freshman of the Year. He also won medalist honors at the 2019 OVC Golf Championship, one of three times in his four-year career that he finished in the Top Five in the league's biggest event. He led the Gamecocks to back-to-back OVC Titles in 2018 and 2019 and on to the NCAA Regionals in both years.
 
The JSU record book is filled with his name. His career scoring average of 72.48 is the second-best in school history only to Danny Willett's 71.96 from 2006-07, while his 52 rounds of par or better are third-most in school history. He made 368 career birdies, fourth-most in school history, and his 10 eagles are fifth on that career list.
 
He holds two of the top five single season scoring averages in school history, with his 71.00 in 2019-20 ranking second all-time. His 64 at the 2019 Golfweek Program Championship is tied for the fourth-lowest round in school history, while his 12-under 204 at the 2019 OVC Championship is the sixth-lowest 54-hole total in program history. He also brought national recognition to JSU, when he qualified for back-to-back US Amateur Tournaments in 2018 and 2019, ending a 15-year drought for Gamecocks in the world's biggest amateur tournament. In 2018, he advanced to match play and defeated the world's No. 1 ranked player in a nationally televised match.
 
Montenegro was named to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll multiple times and earned his degree in Management in 2021 with a 3.02 GPA. He is the third men's golfer to win the Eagle Owl Award and the first since Matias Anselmo in 2005.