Portland State Athletics has named Genna Settle and De'Sean Parsons as the Pacific Office Automation Athletes of the Month for the month of February. POA is sponsoring and recognizing outstanding student-athletes for their successes on and away from the competitive realm at Portland State.
Genna Settle, Women's Indoor Track and Field
Senior Genna Settle became just the second Viking ever to sweep the 60- and 200-meter titles at the Big Sky Indoor Championships on the last weekend of February. She joined Jernise Saunders, who was the first to do it in 2009.
Settle capped the sweep with a record performance in the 200 meters, as she broke the school, championship and conference records with her time of 23.75 seconds. Settle's time edged out the records former Viking and World Outdoor Championship qualifier Karene King set at 23.77 seconds in 2012.
Settle won the 200 by more than a quarter of a second, as Northern Colorado's Moriah Zachary finished second in 24.02 seconds. Zachary came into the Big Sky meet leading Settle in the 200 meters, and edged Settle for the top qualifying time from Friday by a hundredth of a second.
Settle's record win in the 200 came just 45 minutes after she won the finals of the 60 meters in a personal-best 7.44 seconds. Settle's time in the 60 tied her for fifth all-time in the Big Sky record book, and moved her into a tie for third all-time with Saunders in the Portland State record book as well.
Settle's title sweep marked the second-best single championship performance by a Viking at the Big Sky Indoor meet, tying Saunders and Joenisha Vinson, who each scored 20 points in 2009 and 2013, respectively. Gayle Imran-Sideris owns the best single championship performance by a Viking at the indoor meet, as she scored 21 points at the 2006 conference meet.
Settle has also scored 85 career points combined between the indoor and outdoor Big Sky meets now after this year's indoor meet, ranking her fourth in school history.
De'Sean Parsons, Men's Basketball
De'Sean Parsons had the best month of his Portland State basketball career in February, averaging 22.6 points and 8.3 rebounds in eight games. The senior forward from Sacramento also had 20 assists, 11 steals and seven blocked shots. Parsons scored a career-high 35 points against Eastern Washington, and had 32 points in a game against Weber State. He also tied a career-high with 13 rebounds in a win over Montana, then had a career-high four blocked shots against Southern Utah.
For the season, Parsons leads the team in scoring at 15.3 points per game and rebounding at 6.8 per game. He ranks among the Big Sky Conference's top 15 in scoring, rebounds, field goal percentage (.494), blocked shots (22) and steals (38).
Parsons has scored in double figures in 21 games this season and has scored over 20 five times. He has a team-high five double-doubles, has led the team in scoring nine times, rebounding 11 times and assists seven times.
PREVIOUS WINNERS
Sept. 2016: Maximo Espitia, Pati Anae
Oct. 2016: Alex Cisneros, Katie Forsee
Nov. 2016: Cam Keizur, Sidney Rielly
Dec. 2016: Calaen Robinson, Sidney Rielly
Jan. 2017: Alex Cisneros, Ashley Bolston
Fev. 2017: De'Sean Parsons, Genna Settle
