NOTE: Throughout the rest of the spring, student-athletes from SOU's softball and track and field teams whose seasons ended prematurely will be profiled. While none of them will be charged a season of competition this spring and will have the option of returning for 2021, some may choose to end their careers upon graduating.

While Emily Shaw and Kevin Tunnell didn't get the senior showcases they worked for this spring, they'd already proven their big-meet mettle against the Cascade Conference's best. Shaw, a transfer from Biola, and Tunnell, who made his Raider debut as a freshman in 2016, established themselves as favorites in the throws for the 2020 CCC Track and Field Championships long before the season was canceled.

After coming to SOU from Napa, Calif., Tunnell competed at three CCC Championships and helped the Raiders win two team titles. He scored in eight of nine events he entered, totaling 36 points, and placed second in the shot put in both 2018 and '19. Only one other Raider, Max Perry, had posted multiple top-two efforts in the CCC shot put during the decade.

Tunnell, following a redshirt season in 2017, collected his first collegiate event victories on March 24, 2018, at the Humboldt Invite, where he won the shot put and hammer throw and placed second in the discus. Two weeks later at the Chico Twilight, he put up the top marks of his career: 50 feet 11 ½ inches in the shot put and 148-3 in the discus. The shot put mark ended up No. 1 on the CCC performance list and No. 29 in the NAIA for the season, and the discus effort landed him at No. 3 in the circuit.

Tunnell won the shot put at the Raider Invitational in back-to-back seasons, going 50-2 as a junior in 2019. Ahead of his final appearance at the CCC Championships, he was named the CCC Field Athlete of the Week for topping a 26-person field at the Linfield Open with a mark of 48-8 ¾ in the shot.

Shaw, a product of North Medford High, headed home following the 2018 season and a successful stint at Biola. In her Raider Stadium debut on April 13, 2019, Shaw recorded the second-best shot put mark in school history at 42-8 ¼. A week later, she got her first victory at Lane's Titan Twilight with a mark of 42-2 ¾.

At the 2019 CCC Championships, Shaw captured SOU's first women's shot put title in 17 years with a best of 42-0 ½. Perhaps the bigger surprise, though, was her second-place effort in the hammer. After coming into the meet as the No. 8 seed, she came through with a throw of 149-11 that took her to No. 4 on SOU's all-time performance list and helped deliver a third-place team finish for the Raider women.

Both Shaw and Tunnell are on track to graduate this year. Shaw – and Academic All-CCC team member who will also be nominated as a Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athlete – will do so in social sciences/psychology. Tunnell is set to receive his degree in biology.