Wagner Named One of NCAA's Today's Top VIII

Dec. 20, 2002

INDIANAPOLIS - Santa Clara University senior Aly Wagner was named one of eight recipients of the NCAA Today's Top VIII Awards, the NCAA Honors Committee announced recently.

The Today's Top VIII Award winners are a group of distinguished student-athletes from the 2002 calendar year who will be recognized for their academic and athletics achievement, character and leadership at the 38th annual NCAA Honors Dinner January 12, at the Disneyland Hotel, in Anaheim, California.

This year's selections include the 2002 NCAA Woman of the Year finalist from Missouri; a two-time Division II Bulletin National Basketball Player of the Year; the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference player of the year in basketball; the Verizon/CoSIDA academic all-American of the year for Division I-A and I-AA football; a member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic gold medal softball team; a 14-time all-American in gymnastics; a first-team all-Southeastern Conference offensive lineman in football; and the most outstanding offensive soccer player for the 2002 Women's College Cup.

In addition to their athletics accomplishments, the NCAA Today's Top VIII recipients have earned numerous academic honors, have volunteered countless hours to community projects and have served as role models for their academic institutions and to their peers.

The NCAA's Today's Top VIII recipients.

This year's selections are Ann Marie Brooks, an indoor and outdoor track and field student-athlete from the University of Missouri, Columbia; Michelle Cottrell, a basketball student-athlete from Northern Kentucky University; Kari Groshek, a basketball student-athlete from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point; Ryan Johnson, a football student-athlete from Montana State University-Bozeman; Stacey Nuveman, a softball student-athlete from the University of California, Los Angeles; Andree' Pickens, a gymnast from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Jonathon Stinchcomb, a football student-athlete from the University of Georgia; and Wagner.

ESPN SportsCenter anchor Linda Cohn will serve as master of ceremonies for the event. Cohn, a graduate of State University College at Oswego, was a former goalie for her high-school boys' ice hockey team in Newford, New York, and for the women's team at Oswego State.

Today's Top VIII honorees are selected by the NCAA Honors Committee comprised of eight athletics administrators at member institutions and conferences and nationally distinguished citizens who are former student-athletes. The members of the NCAA Honors Committee are: Harry Carson, president, Harry Carson, Inc.; Eugene F. Corrigan, commissioner emeritus, Atlantic Coast Conference; Clyde Doughty Jr., athletics director, New York Institute of Technology; Jack Ford, ESPN news anchor/correspondent; Jo Ann Harper, athletics director, Dartmouth College; Susan Hartmann, faculty athletic representative, Ohio State University; Karen L. Johnson, director of institutional research, Alfred University; and Valerie Richardson, assistant commissioner, West Coast Conference. Candidates are nominated by NCAA member institutions.