The 1999-2000 Oregon athletic season may have ended three weeks ago, but the accolades keep coming on in.
At the top of the list are the prestigious Pacific-10 Conference Medal awards, which are given to each school’s outstanding male and female student-athlete who showed the “greatest combination of performance and achievement in scholarship, athletics and leadership.”
The Oregon recipients for this season were seniors A.D. Smith of the men’s basketball team and Anika Heuser of the women’s golf team.
The two both performed admirably in and out of the classroom, in leading their teams to the NCAA Basketball Tournament and NCAA Women’s Golf Championships, respectively.
Smith became the first player in Oregon history to rank in the top-10 in field goal percentage (.512), free throw shooting (.780) and three-point shooting (.389). To top it off, he completed his first year of graduate school, after already earning his degree in business administration last spring with a GPA of 3.55.
Heuser finished off her memorable Duck career with a scoring average of 77.7. Her highlight of the season was finishing tied for 11th with an average round of 75 at the Pac-10 Championships — the second-best performance in Oregon history. Even more impressive was her average in the classroom, as the Wuppertal, Germany native finished with a 4.02 GPA in business administration.
The softball team (36-29) was the highlight of the spring sports season as it appeared in its third consecutive NCAA Tournament. In a banquet held earlier this month the team presented its annual postseason awards.
To the surprise of nobody, senior Jill Robinson was selected as the team’s Most Valuable Player. The slugger set the Oregon career home run record (32), the single season mark (15) and the career record for runs scored (154).
Two freshmen who had just as much to do with the success as anybody were also awarded for their efforts. Andrea Vidlund was named Newcomer of the Year and Alyssa Laux was tabbed as the Most Inspirational Player.
Vidlund boasted the best pitching record on the squad with a 17-8 mark. She threw the first Oregon no-hitter since 1989, when she beat Portland 8-0 on March 18. Vidlund had 96 strikeouts on the year and allowed only 54 earned runs in 146 innings of work.
Laux was the Ducks’ second leading hitter in the NCAA Tournament, going five-for-13 for a .385 clip in four games.
On the men’s track side, senior long distance runner Steve Fein earned the Most Inspirational award and the Bill Dellinger Cross Country Award. The Outstanding Athlete award went to sophomore high jumper Jason Boness, who finished off his first season as a Duck with All-American honors. And just last Wednesday, the Pac-10 named Boness as the league’s Newcomer of the Year.
Senior long jumper Nat Johnson was given the Most Improved honor and sophomore decathalete Santiago Lorenzo was presented with the High Point Scorer award.
For the women, sophomore heptathalete Jenny Kenyon was tabbed as the Most Improved while senior long distance runner Annie Ebiner was voted Most Inspirational. Freshman Amy Nickerson was given the Cross Country Award and fellow freshman Mary Etter was awarded with the High Point Scorer award for her work in the discus and hammer.
Senior Katie Crabb and junior Karis Howell were presented with co-Performer of the Year honors as each helped make up for a somewhat down season for the women.