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Hartwell Named 2000 Buck Buchanan Award Winner

December 4, 2000

• Hartwell to Play in Blue-Gray Game


• Downloadable photos of Hartwell

Western Illinois University linebacker Edgerton Hartwell (Las Vegas, NV/ Cheyenne HS) has been named the 2000 Buck Buchanan Award winner, given annually to the nation's top I-AA defensive player, after leading the I-AA ranks in tackles this season -- recording 169 stops in 11 regular season games (15.4 per game). Hartwell was recognized as the Buck Buchanan Award winner today at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City, along with the Walter Payton and Eddie Robinsons Award winners.

Hartwell tallied a total of 215 points and received votes on 61 of the 90 ballots cast. Second in the balloting was Montana's Andy Petak, with 188 points. Hartwell garnered 23 first place votes and 15 second-place votes while Petak had 24 first-place votes and six second-place votes. Both players were close in third- through fifth-place votes. The Gateway's other nominee for the Buck Buchanan Award, Youngstown State's Tim Johnson, finished a close third.

Hartwell finished his three-year WIU career as the school's leading tackler with 512 tackles and is the second Leatherneck to be named the Buchanan winner, joining 1998 teammate and linebacking partner, James Milton. WIU is the only school to have two players be named the Buck Buchanan Award winner in the award's six-year history. The only other school to win the award twice is Appalachian St., whose Dexter Coakley won the award the first two times it was awarded (1995 & 1996).

Hartwell was a consensus All-American last season, being named to five All- American teams, and has been the Gateway Conference's Defensive Player of the year in each of the last two seasons (1999 and 2000). Hartwell is a three-time all-Gateway selection, being named to the Second Team in 1998 and the First Team in 1999 and again this season. He was named to the Gateway all-Newcomer Team in 1998, after transferring from Wisconsin.

Hartwell has been named Player of the Week by both the Gateway Conference and The Sports Network once in each of the last two seasons, and was a pre- season All-American pick by The Sports Network this season. He was named Mel Kiper's Sleeper of the Week on October 25 by the ESPN NFL Draft analyst (http:// espn.go.com/melkiper/sleeper/s/2000/1025/838331.html) and will become only the second WIU player to play in the Kelly Tire Blue-Gray Game on Christmas Day. Frank Winters played in the game in 1986.

In three seasons at WIU, Hartwell set records for career tackles (512), tackles in a season (191 this season) and career solo tackles (307). He ranks second in single-season solo tackles and for career assisted tackles. His 204 career assists is second only to Joe Byrne's 225 (1973-75) and his 122 solo tackles this season is second to Steve Silosky's 125 solo stops in 1975. Hartwell has two of WIU's top three single-season solo tackle marks, recording 122 this season and 107 in 1999.

Hartwell recorded double-digit tackle totals in his last 24 games as a Leatherneck. He reached double-digits in 31 of 37 games during his WIU career and recorded 20 or more tackles seven times during that same span. He made 20 or more stops four times this season, including three consecutive games this season -- 20 at Southern Illinois on 10/7, 20 at SW Missouri State on 10/14 and 21 against Youngstown State on 10/21. He set his 2000 season high with 22 tackles in the playoff game against Lehigh, recording 15 solo stops and assisting on seven tackles. He reached the 20-tackle mark twice in 1999 -- 23 at Indiana St. and 26 against Elon College -- and also made 20 stops at Elon College in 1998. The 26 tackles against Elon College in 1999 is the second-best single-game performance in WIU history. In that game, he tied the school record for solo tackles in a game with 18.

Hartwell made 191 total tackles this season (122 solo, 69 assisted). Hartwell's 321 tackles in his first two seasons at WIU was the highest total ever by a Leatherneck in their first two years, and his 356 tackles over the last two seasons is the most for a Leatherneck over a two-year span. Hartwell has three of WIU's top seven single-season tackle performances. In addition to this season's school-record 191, his 165 tackles last season ranks fifth and his 156 tackles in 1998 ranks seventh. Hartwell led the Leathernecks in tackles this year and last year, and was second on the team in 1998, trailing only Buck Buchanan Award winner James Milton.

In addition to leading the nation in tackles this season, Hartwell also ranked fifth in the nation with six total fumbles (two forced, four recovered), and tied for the national lead with four fumble recoveries. He led the Gateway with his four fumble recoveries and finished tied for eighth in the conference with 11 tackles-for-loss.

Hartwell is the only Leatherneck player to be a finalist for a national post-season award in consecutive years, after finishing fifth in the Buck Buchanan Award balloting last year. Hartwell was the third consecutive Leatherneck to be a finalist for the Buchanan Award last season. Cyron Brown was the first WIU finalist in 1997 and James Milton won the award in 1998. Milton was the first WIU and Gateway Conference player to win a national post- season award. Hartwell played the linebacker position opposite Milton in his first season with the Leathernecks.

WIU has had at least one player on a post-season ballot in each of the last four seasons, with a total of nine finalists. The Leathernecks have had a Buck Buchanan Award finalist in each of the last four seasons.

Hartwell Game-by-Game (2000)

Hartwell Game-by-Game (1999)

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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