By Stephen Utz
On October 21, the IU Southeast Athletic Department held its Champions Reception event in the Hoosier Room. The event raised funds for the athletic department while also recognizing outstanding student-athlete achievement from the previous academic year.
The 2023 event honored the Grenadiers’ Male and Female Athletes of the Year, the Jim Morris Champion of Character award and the Distinguished Athletic Alumni Award.
The event also honored Jim Morris, the department’s first athletic director and longtime men’s basketball coach, who passed away in June. His life and contributions to the University were celebrated with an “In Mememoriam” video and remarks from, Dan Morris, one of Coach Morris’s sons.
The 2013 men’s basketball team that reached the first NAIA Final Four in school history was also recognized with more than half the team in attendance.
2023 Champions Reception Award Winners
Trevor Campbell – Male Athlete of the Year (Baseball)
Trevor Campbell was a two-year member of the IU Southeast baseball team. During his junior season, his first at IU Southeast, Campbell hit .417 with 10 home runs and 54 RBI. He earned the 2022 River States Conference Baseball Player of the Year and was voted as the 2021-22 River States Conference Male Athlete of the Year. He was later named an NAIA Baseball Second Team All-American. He helped lead the Grenadiers to the RSC Baseball Championship title and the NAIA National Championship Opening Round.
In his senior season, Campbell hit .401 with 8 home runs and 71 RBI. He finished second in the RSC in batting average, runs batted in, extra base hits, and total bases. Campbell ended the season tied for first in the RSC with 26 stolen bases. For his efforts, Campbell was named to the All-RSC Baseball First Team for the second consecutive season. He also earned 2023 NAIA Baseball All-American Honorable Mention.
Autumn Oehlstrom – Female Athlete of the Year (Softball)
Autumn Oehlstrom played her first year at IU Southeast in 2023. Oehlstrom hit .480 with 14 home runs and 56 RBI while starting all 53 games. She earned the 2023 River States Conference Softball Player and Newcomer of the Year. She was later named to the 2023 NAIA All-American First Team and the 2023 National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-American Second Team.
Oehlstrom helped lead the Grenadiers to an RSC Regular Season Championship and an NAIA Softball Opening Round berth. She led the Grenadiers in games played, home runs, runs batted in, batting average, runs, hits and extra-base hits. She finished sixth in the NAIA in home runs, batting average and hits.
She set the IU Southeast single season records in home runs, hits, total bases, and RBIs. Her .480 batting average stands as the second highest single season batting average in school history. She is currently fifth in school history in career home runs.
Ysa Fox – Jim Morris Champion of Character (Softball)
Ysa Fox was a four-year member of the IU Southeast softball team. In her four seasons, she helped lead the Grenadiers to two NAIA Softball Opening Round appearances.
Head Coach Tiffany Buckmaster said Fox was the ultimate team player for the Grenadiers. She accepted every role that was given to her, and her energy and attitude never wavered. She was able to put her own needs aside to not only respect her teammates, but also the program and the game of softball. She was the last to leave the dugout, field, and bus to make sure everything was accounted for and taken care of.
Off the field, Fox excelled in the classroom and was named a Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete. She was named to the Chancellor’s List four times and was a member of the RSC Softball Scholar-Athlete team. She also spent time as a mentor in the IUS Mentoring program and was a member of the Psychology Club. In 2020, she finished third place in the Voices of Change competition after giving a speech on reducing plastic use.
Jeff Klump – Distinguished Athlete Alumni (Baseball)
Jeff Klump was a two-year member of the IU Southeast baseball team from 2009-2010. Prior to his time at IU Southeast, he attended Vincennes University before enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, serving for over five years in the First Combat Engineer Battalion.
During his time at IU Southeast, Klump was named to the KIAC All-Conference Second Team in 2009 and earned recognition on the Gold Glove team. In 2010, he was a KIAC First Team selection and was the Grenadiers’ Champion of Character representative.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Safety Science from Indiana University in 2011.
Klump founded Mid-America Safety Solutions, a traffic control safety company providing on-site traffic management for work sites in the Evansville, Bloomington, Indianapolis and Cincinnati areas. The company was named the 2021 Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.
Click on the videos below to learn more about our Grenadier athletes and to view the memorial video for Coach Jim Morris.
