April 19, 2016
Howell’s Photos | Historical Award Winners
Jamie Kator and Sam Reilly were among the top awards at Monday night’s annual Black and Gold Banquet, Vanderbilt’s student-athlete awards dinner.
Reilly, a member of the cross country team, won the coveted Jim Robins Award which goes to the student-athlete whose life embodies devotion to learning, service to the community and achievement in athletics.
He has been a consistent high finisher on the Commodore team and is a double major in Political Science and History. He is the current SAAC President, and has earned two years on the SEC academic honor roll. After graduation Reilly will join the Teach for America Program and later hopes to pursue laws.
Kator, a lacrosse student-athlete, earned the Dr. Jerry Reeves Award for having the highest cumulative grade point average. She is a senior on the soccer team, Jamie will earn a degree majoring in Biological Sciences with a minor in Chemistry this May and carries a cumulative grade point of 3.845. She plans to pursue medical school.
There were 11 major awards announced at the event, sponsored by the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, with the recipients chosen by vote of the student-athletes. Several of the awards date back to last spring as the banquet is held prior to the completion of a number of sport seasons due to the conclusion of the academic year.
Astra Sharma of tennis was voted by her colleagues as the Female Comeback Player of the Year She overcame an injury her true freshman year to lead the Commodores to a national championship last June. She was named the Outstanding Player at both the SEC and NCAA Championships.
Baseball’s Hayden Stone won the Male Comeback Player of the Year. After a sterling freshman year in which he helped his team win the 2014 NCAA Championship, Stone was sidelined with Tommy John surgery and missed nearly all of the 2015 season in rehabilitation. He returned to the pitching roster this year.
The student-athletes also vote on a Miss Commodore and Mr. Commodore Award, which go to graduating seniors who best represent their sport, all student-athletes and the campus community. These honors went to Amanda Lockwood (lacrosse) and Carter Josephs (basketball).
Lockwood served as a tour guide for the university and represents Vanderbilt athletics well. She’s involved with Soles4Souls and SAAC, as well as being an integral member of the lacrosse team, having been named Big East Attacker of the Week.
Carter Josephs began as a walk-on and earned a scholarship, playing in 61 games during his four-year career with the Commodores. He will graduate with three undergraduate degrees in computer science, mathematics, and economics. He is also nominated for a prestigious Steine-Stone Memorial Award as the student-athlete with the highest Engineering grade point average.
Sam Reilly won his second award of the night when presented with the Community Service Award after four years of exceptional commitment to service.
He is the founder and President of Coaching for Literacy: Vanderbilt; he has raised over $2,000 for Book’Em Nashville for CFL’s Assistant Coach Program; volunteers with CFL two days a week at Preston Taylor Ministries after school program; volunteers every week at Eakin Elementary to tutor a local first grader; served as the community service chair of SAAC; ran the 2015 SAAC Commodores Compete for a Cause and helped raised about $3,000 for the Nashville YWCA and served as a community reader at Nashville’s Read-me-day.
The Female Play of the Year went to the national champion women’s tennis team for its remarkable performance in winning the title in Waco, Tex., defeating Florida, Southern Cal and UCLA in thrilling fashion.
The Male Play of the Year went to basketball’s Josh Henderson, who tossed in a remarkable 80-foot shot to end the first half in a nationally televised game at Florida.
The Female Newcomer of the Year was Caroline Pietrzyk of the cross country team while baseball right-fielder Jeren Kendall was the Male Newcomer of the Year for his terrific freshman campaign in 2015.
Kendall was a Freshman All-American and one of the heroes in Vanderbilt’s run to the championship game of the College World Series. Pietrzyk earned All-America honors and led Vanderbilt in every race last fall.
Shining Star Awards, presented to the student-athlete considered an unsung hero that best embodies the Commodore spirit, went to Miya Seawright and Myka Dancy of women’s basketball, Rachel Koch of swimming, Tori Ferris (bowling), Kacy Scarpa (soccer), Alexandra Farnwsorth (golf), Sarah Wilcox (lacrosse), Ben Bowden (baseball), Carter Josephs (basketball), Sarah Goodale (track), Nicholas French (cross country), Andrew Williamson (football), Vikram Chari (tennis) and Summer Dvorak (tennis) and Megan Huebner (women’s cross country)
The bowling team won the internal team competition as the program that raised the most money to benefit this year’s charitable organization of choice – the Boys and Girls Clubs. The swim team was the judge’s choice as the team whose self-produced video on their sport was most entertaining.
Football’s Oren Burks was introduced as next year’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee president.
