Annual academic awards banquet held at OSU

Monday, April 23, 2007

Oklahoma State University held its annual Student-Athlete Awards Banquet on Thursday, April 12, honoring nearly 250 student-athletes in various academic areas.

The highlight of the evening was the announcement of the Female and Male Student-Athletes of the Year. Lauren Simmons, a four-year member of the Cowgirl tennis team, and Darnell Smith, a four-year member of the Cowboy football squad, received the accolades.

The first award given during the banquet was the 2006 Nate Fleming Academic Effort & Improvement Scholarship, an honor presented each year to male and female student-athletes who have overcome personal struggles through hard work, determination, and effort to excel not only in their sport but also in the classroom and in life. These awards were given to Cowgirl basketball player Rashidat Sadiq and JamesOn Curry from the men’s basketball team.

It was also announced that freshman Obi Muonelo of the Cowboy basketball squad would be one of approximately 300 students nationwide selected to participate in the May NCAA Leadership Conference in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Muonelo was one of four nominees from OSU and one of more than 1,000 nominations from nearly 300 institutions.

Golfer Zack Robinson was given the “Excellence in Education” Award, formerly the Jim Thorpe Award. The accolade is presented annually to one student-athlete from each of the four Division I schools in Oklahoma who represents excellence in education. Robinson was also announced as the 2006 ESPN/CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year, the first such honor for an OSU student-athlete.

Three student-athletes were presented with the Big 12/Chick-fil-A Awards, given to members of Big 12 Conference schools in recognition of their community service efforts, grade-point average and sportsmanship. Three representatives were from OSU: Darnell Smith (football), Destanie Sykes (women’s basketball) and Martel Van Zant (football).

OSU had 17 recipients of the 2006 Arthur Ashe, Jr., Sports Scholar Award for minority student-athletes who had excelled in the classroom, community and athletics. That total led all Division I institutions. In 2007, OSU had 16 recipients of the prestigious award. Those student-athletes were: Yawna Allen (women’s tennis), Clint Coe (football), Brian Gosnell (men’s track), Joe Gray (men’s track), Kendall Horner (baseball), DeLeanor Kirkpatrick (women’s track), Pablo Martin (men’s golf), Brittany Mason (women’s track), Newly McSpadden (wrestling), Julius Neal (football), Yolanda Odenyo (soccer), McKenzie Price (women’s tennis), Alejandro Ruiz (men’s track), Darnell Smith (football), Destanie Sykes (women’s basketball) and Kalea Tam (women’s track).

Twenty-five student-athletes were recognized as Academic All-Americans and/or All-Scholars for 2006. A total of 101 student-athletes from OSU garnered Academic All-Big 12 awards in 2006, breaking the previous record of 97 set in 2002.