June 1, 2006
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern University's N Club held its annual Senior Recognition Banquet Thursday night at the University's Norris Center. The banquet recognized some of Northwestern's finest athletic efforts from the past season while inducting the senior class into the N Club.
Two student-athletes were nominated for the prestigious Big Ten Medal of Honor, Lindsey Munday (Mountain Lakes, N.J./Mountain Lakes) of women's lacrosse and Brett Basanez (Arlington Heights, Ill./St. Viator) from football. This award is given annually to one graduating male and female student-athlete of outstanding academic and athletic talent.
Munday played a key role in leading Northwestern to back-to-back NCAA national lacrosse titles and is the school's all-time assists leader with 128. She is just the 26th player in Division I history to record 100 or more assists. Munday was chosen a 2005 and 2006 first-team IWLCA All-American after setting school records in a season with 54 assists and 107 points in 2005 and then finishing third nationally with 2.5 assists per game in 2006. Munday helped lead the Wildcats to a 41-1 record the past two years.
Basanez closed his career by leading Northwestern to the second-best offensive season in Big Ten history as the Wildcats joined the 1994 Penn State team as the only squad to average more than 500 yards of offense. A four-year starting quarterback, Basanez guided Northwestern to a 14-10 Big Ten record the past three years and three successive seasons with four or more conference victories--a school first. He shattered nearly every major passing and total offense mark, setting 32 school records. He was the Big Ten's 2005 Offensive Player of the Year and a consensus first-team All-Big Ten selection.
Northwestern also announced its nominations for the Big Ten Suzy Favor and Jesse Owens Awards. The two awards are given annually to the outstanding female and male athletes in the Big Ten. This year's Northwestern honorees are Cristelle Grier (Epsom, England/Putney) from women's tennis and Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) from men's swimming.
Grier capped off, perhaps, the best career by any Big Ten female tennis player with an NCAA doubles championship earlier this week. Teaming with junior Alexis Prousis (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest), the duo won their final 15 matches of 2005-06, which included a national semifinal win over the nation's top-ranked doubles team from Stanford. Grier earned All-America honors in both singles and doubles play this season, and was named the Big Ten and ITA Midwest Regional Player of the Year. Grier posted a 46-1 singles record in the Big Ten--believed to be the best-ever conference career mark--and is the only player to earn three Big Ten Player of the Year awards. Grier concluded her career 181-38 and is the only NU player to ever earn four consecutive singles All-America honors.
In three years as a Wildcat, Grevers has become the most decorated men's swimmer in school history. He earned seven All-America honors at the 2006 NCAA Championships to bring his career total to a school-record 21 in just three years. Grevers successfully defended his 100-backstroke NCAA championship and helped four Northwestern relays place in the championship heat for the first time in school history while the Wildcats earned their second-consecutive top-10 finish despite having only a five-swimmer delegation. Grevers won five Big Ten titles in 2006 and earned Big Ten Swimmer of the Year honors for the second time in his career. He is now the owner of nine Northwestern school records after breaking a pair of seven-year-old marks in the 200 free and the 200 back during the season.
The N Club Performance Award winners were Kristen Amegin (W. Sacramento, Calif./Elk Grove) from softball and Vedran Vukusic (Split, Croatia) from men's basketball and Tim McGarigle (Chicago, Ill./St. Patrick) from football. This award is generally presented to one male and one female student-athlete in recognition of "spectacular and outstanding" athletic performance by a graduating senior and letter award winner. The award is being given to two males this year due to a tie in the voting.
Amegin, who is presently competing for the Wildcats at the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City, is the first true power hitter to be a part of Northwestern softball, and she is concluding her career as the school's single-season and career home run queen. She blasted 14 home runs in 2005 to set the NU single-season standard for power, and enters this week's WCWS with 34 career blasts--14 more than the previous NU career record. She ranks sixth in Big Ten Conference history with her 34 career homers. Amegin also ranks first on NU's career list for walks with 114. Once the season is over, she will continue playing softball overseas in Austria.
This past year, Vukusic was named a second-team All-Big Ten selection and became the first Wildcat since Evan Eschmeyer to garner All-Big Ten honors in three-consecutive seasons. He led the Big Ten in scoring through the regular season with 19.4 points per game, the first Wildcat to accomplish that feat in over 55 years. Vukusic finished his stellar career as Northwestern's all-time leader in three-point field goals (212) and finished fourth on the Wildcats' all-time scoring list with 1,581 career points. He is just the seventh player in 101 years of Northwestern basketball to eclipse 1,500 points.
Best described as the most relentless player to wear the purple and white in recent memory, McGarigle closed his illustrious career as Northwestern's all-time leading tackler with 545 hits, which included a school-record 319 solo tackles. In addition, his 545 tackles ranks first on the NCAA's all-time tackle list since the organization began keeping official defensive statistics in 2000. McGarigle recorded double-digit tackle totals in 29 career games and had three games with 20 or more tackles, including a career-best 25 in a win over Wisconsin in 2005. This past season McGarigle was one of 10 semifinalists for the Dick Butkus Award, which honors the nation's top linebacker, and one of 12 semifinalists for the Chuck Bednarik Award, which honors the nation's top defensive player. He is a two-time All-Big Ten selection.
Sharon Sullivan (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) from women's fencing and John Velez (Kings Mills, Ohio/Kings) from wrestling were the recipients of the N Club Achievement Award, which is given to the student-athletes (one male and one female) who have exhibited the qualities of good citizenship, significant academic achievement and outstanding athletic performance.
Sullivan made her third trip to the NCAA Fencing Championships in 2006 after a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional. At the NCAA national meet, she placed 13th. She also finished third at the Midwest Conference Fencing Championships. She ends her career as one of NU's most successful epeeists with a 283-120 career record. Outside the playing arena, she was the fencing representative on Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) for two years and an active member in community service. She also maintained a high GPA while completing a degree in history and pre-law.
Velez began his career with the Wildcats as a walk-on and finished five years later as an All-American. He compiled a 27-10 overall record in 2005-06 and finished his career with a 93-64 mark. His stellar wrestling at the 125-pound weight class helped NU reach new heights as a program in 2005-06, which included five conference wins, a fifth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships and a 13th-place finish at the NCAA Championships. In this past year's dual meet with then-No. 3 Illinois, Velez sparked the 'Cats by pinning Illinois' third-ranked Kyle Ott, which propelled Northwestern to its eventual 19-16 win over the defending conference champions. Off the mat, Velez was awarded a research grant from General Motors Ford Scholarship for leadership (worth $10,000) and was president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
The Billy McKinney Award is presented to the male student-athlete who has exhibited exemplary leadership qualities, constant (110 percent) effort, and a positive attitude that, in his coach's estimation, makes him a "coach's dream." The award was presented to football player Chris Horton (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington), a four-year starting long-snapper who head coach Randy Walker called "one of the best long-snappers" he's been around.
Sarah Albrecht (Braintree, Mass./Thayer Academy) from women's lacrosse and Courtnay Foster (Tucson, Ariz./Sahuaro) from softball shared the Lisa Ishikawa Award, which is presented to a female student-athlete who has exhibited outstanding leadership ability and selfless dedication to team goals; Ishikawa's determination and positive attitude led her to perform above and beyond the expected. Albrecht helped lead the Wildcats to back-to-back NCAA national titles and was named the Most Outstanding Player at the 2006 NCAA Championship in her hometown of Boston. Albrecht was named a first-team IWLCA All-American in 2006.
Foster is the best pitcher to come through Northwestern since the namesake of this award set the then-NCAA single-season and career strikeout records in the mid-80s. Foster enters this year's WCWS just three strikeouts shy of 1,000 for her career. She currently ranks 26th in the history of Division I softball with a 9.1 strikeouts per seven innings ratio.
Julie Lipinski (Tinley Park, Ill./Marian Catholic) from women's soccer and Adam Schaechterle (Oconomowoc, Wis./Kettle Moraine) from men's tennis are Northwestern's 2006 Big Ten Female and Male Sportsmanship Award recipients. The award is given to one male and female student-athlete who displays exemplary sportsmanship and is a key contributor in the community.
Lipinski was a four-year letterwinner and a two-time academic All-Big Ten selection. She was a member of SAAC for three years while sacrificing much of her time to numerous charities. Schaechterle was the leader of the men's tennis team and the program's 2006 Vandy Christie Award winner, which is given to a player that demonstrates outstanding loyalty and dedication. Schaechterle was involved in numerous groups, most notably the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Jessica Anderson (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity) from women's cross country and Julio Siberio (Davie, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) from baseball were given The Director's Award, which is presented to the senior male and female student-athletes who will graduate with the highest cumulative grade point average of all graduating student-athletes.
Anderson was a two-year letterwinner and a three-time academic All-Big Ten selection. Siberio earned third-team All-Big Ten laurels as a relief pitcher and played a key role in helping the 2006 Wildcats to their record-setting Big Ten season.
Northwestern also announced its 2006 NCAA Woman of the Year candidates at the event. This award recognizes individual excellence in three areas: athletics, academics and community service. Up to two graduating seniors at each institution who participated in the 2005-06 academic year will be recognized as the "NCAA Women of the Year" and will automatically be eligible for state selection. Northwestern's two nominees are Cristelle Grier and Sheila McCorkle (Costa Mesa, Calif./Mater Dei) from softball.
McCorkle is a member of the five-person senior class that has led Northwestern to the WCWS for the first time in 20 years. Her defensive presence in center field has been the foundation for NU's outfielders the past three seasons.