Spence named to Lowe's Senior CLASS Award
<p>Thirty NCAA® baseball student-athletes who excel both on and off the field were tabbed as candidates today for the 2010 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - classroom, character, community and competition. The complete list of candidates follows this release.</p><separator></separator><p>An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School<sup>TM</sup>, the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.</p><separator></separator><p>This year's candidate class includes 12 student-athletes on teams ranked in Collegiate Baseball magazine's preseason top 40 poll and seven players tabbed as preseason All-Americans by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Twelve of the candidates carry a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or better, with one recording a perfect 4.0.</p><separator></separator><p>Lowe's, an official Corporate Partner of the NCAA, will announce the winner at the NCAA College World Series® in June.</p><separator></separator><p>The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of classroom, character, community and competition.</p><separator></separator><p>Spence returns to Tempe for his senior season after going 10-1 with 2.37 ERA and 125 strikeouts. The Australian is on pace to earn his degree in May.</p><separator></separator><p>This marks the fourth year for the baseball division of the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. The University of Alabama's Emeel Salem was the inaugural winner in 2007, Rice University's Cole St. Clair was the recipient in 2008 and the University of Florida's Brandon McArthur took home the award in 2009</p>