No. 16 seed Alvaro Fernandez-Maldonado of men’s soccer and No. 16 seed Kelsey Yustat of women’s basketball have advanced from the Preliminary to the First Round of the Beacon Sports Staff “Athlete of the Year” tournament.

Fernandez-Maldonado defeated No. 17 Alex Anderson of men’s golf, 81%-19% of all voting. Fernandez-Maldonado will look to upset No. 1 seed Marcus Robinson (men’s basketball) in the First Round.

On the female side, Yustat defeated fellow basketball teammate No. 17 seed Nicole Farrell, 58%-42%. Yustat also looks for an upset of her own where she will face No. 1 seed Marissa Surdy (field hockey) in the First Round.

The First Round opens later today at 10:00 a.m. A total of eight male and eight female matchups will see voting close on Sunday at 11:59 p.m.

Winners will advance to the Quarterfinal Round on Monday.

The 17-athlete tournament features all of the previous athlete of the weeks in a seeded bracket format similar to the NCAA tournament.

The tournament is broken into the same two categories as the typical athlete of the week segments, featured in every edition of The Beacon.

The champion of both categories will be featured in a full page spread in the final edition of The Beacon on Apr. 17.

The competition is being conducted utilizing Twitter polls via @wilkesbeacon. The winner of each poll advances to next round.

In the event of a tie, the higher seed will advance.

For coverage of the tournament, check out the following Twitter accounts:
Luke Modrovsky, Sports Editor — @LukeModrovsky
Ben Mandell, Asst. Sports Editor — @BenMandell55
Alex Kielar, Asst. Sports Editor — @alexkielar
Kirsten Peters, Staff Writer — @kirsterpetersss

Coverage will also be provided through media partner WCLH 90.7 FM — Wilkes University radio through @WCLH_radio and @WCLHsports

Dates and times for the remaining voting periods are as follows:
First round: Sat. Apr. 7, 10:00 a.m. – Sun. Apr. 8, 11:59 p.m.
Quarterfinal round: Mon. Apr. 9, 10:00 a.m. – Mon. Apr. 9, 11:59 p.m.
Semifinal round: Tues. Apr. 10, 10:00 a.m. – Tues. Apr. 10, 11:59 p.m.
Championship round: Weds. Apr. 11, 10:00 a.m. – Weds. Apr. 11, 11:59 p.m.