Track & field's Stevens selected Pac-10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Sarah Stevens, a senior on the Arizona State University track and field team, has been selected as the 2009 Pac-10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year for Women’s Track & Field presented by Toyo Tires, the Conference announced Wednesday. Stevens was one of 10 student-athletes to earn the honor for spring sport athletes and also was one of three Sun Devils to collect the honor, joining Jessica Mapes (softball) and Azahara Munoz (golf) as recipients.
The 2007 USTFCCCA Indoor Women’s Field and 2008 USTFCCCA Outdoor Women’s Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Stevens has excelled in the classroom while collecting two national titles and a program-record 12 All-America honors. A May 2008 graduate from ASU with a B.S. in Kinesiology, Stevens is currently pursuing her M.Ed. in Elementary Education and was recently named to the Academic All-Pac-10 First Team.
After earning All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March by finishing second in the shot put and fourth in the weight throw, Stevens has made a name for herself outdoors as she heads to the national outdoor meet as the only woman in the NCAA to not only qualify to throw in the shot put, discus and hammer, but she did so by automatically qualifying in all three. Ranked in the Top 5 in all three throws -- shot put (second), discus (third) and hammer (fifth) -- Stevens won the shot put and discus crowns at the Pac-10 Championships and finished second in the hammer throw before duplicating the identical placements at the NCAA West Region Championships.
Stevens is one of five Sun Devils to be honored this academic year and the second from the track & field/cross country program, joining Jenna Kingma, who was honored as the Women’s Cross Country recipient during the fall. The final Sun Devil to earn the honor this year was women’s basketball player Sybil Dosty (winter honoree).
To be eligible for the honor, a student-athlete must be a senior (athletic eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50-percent of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum of one year in residence at the institution. Each recipient will receive a commemorative award while Toyo Tires will donate $1,000 to the scholarship funds of the institution’s athletic department of each winner in recognition of their accomplishments.
Stevens and the Sun Devils will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., next week to compete in the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships that will be hosted by Arkansas on June 10-13.
2009 Spring Pac-10 Scholar-Athletes of the Year
Sarah Stevens (Arizona State) - Women’s Track & Field
Galen Rupp (Oregon) - Men’s Track & Field
Greg Lagreid (Washington State) - Baseball
Jessica Mapes (Arizona State) - Softball
Alex Williams (Oregon State) - Men’s Golf
Azahara Munoz (Arizona State) - Women’s Golf
Michael Look (UCLA) - Men’s Tennis
Danielle Steinberg (Arizona) - Women’s Tennis
Mark Murphy (Stanford) - Men’s Rowing
Robin Hextrum (USC) - Women’s Rowing