April 20, 2010
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Catherine Newman and Thomas Davis earned two of the top awards at Monday night’s annual Black and Gold Banquet, Vanderbilt’s student-athlete awards dinner.
Newman, one of the most successful singles players in program history, 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. Catherine has won 105 matches in her career to win All-SEC honors in each of her four years while carrying a cumulative grade point of 3.89 in civil engineering.
Thomas Davis, a cross country runner, earned the Dr. Jerry Reeves Award for having the highest cumulative grade point average. Davis will earn a Bachelor of Engineering honors diploma in a few weeks with a current 3.991 average in Biomedical Engineering.
Davis was also honored with the Community Service Award after four years of notable commitment to service. His current project is the “La Escalera de Escalente” project he founded three years ago, which serves bilingual and literacy needs of Hispanic children in the elementary school grades.
Bowling’s Josie Earnest and basketball’s Jermaine Beal won the respective Plays of the Year, as voted upon by the Student -Athlete Advisory Committee. Earnest was cited for her remarkable spare conversion of a 6-7 split to help the Commodores defeat Nebraska while Beal was remembered for hitting a shot to defeat Alabama by a single point last January.
Basketball’s Hannah Tuomi was voted by her colleagues as the Female Comeback Player of the Year for her successful return from serious injury as was her counter-part, Andre Walker of the men’s team.
The Female Newcomer of the Year was soccer’s Chelsea Stewart while football’s record-setting Warren Norman was the pick as Male Newcomer of the Year.
The student-athletes also vote annually 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.
Josie Earnest, a four-time All-American bowler who was twice her sport’s national Player of the Year, was voted Miss Commodore. Earnest was an academic All-American.
Scott Lieberman of the tennis team was voted Mr. Commodore. After losing his mother to cancer last year, Scott created a non-profit with his family called Advantage Love to help find a cure for colorectal cancer and spreading awareness about the disease.
The Tolbert Cup, named for NCAA track champion and Vanderbilt Hall of Famer Ryan Tolbert, was awarded to the men’s cross country team as the unit that best combined community service with academic and athletic achievement.
Basketball’s Rebecca Silinski was introduced as next year’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee president.