Garlington Talks About Her Award Reed After the Banquet Photo Gallery

May 2, 2011

LAWRENCE, Kan. -

Kansas volleyball player Karina Garlington and men’s basketball player Tyrel Reed took home the Bob Frederick Senior Scholar Athlete of the Year Awards from the Senior & Scholar Banquet in Allen Fieldhouse Tuesday night.

Garlington, a four-year starter for the Jayhawks, left the program as one of the top outside hitters in program history. Her 1,309 career kills are the second-most in Kansas volleyball history, while her 407 kills in her senior campaign were the eighth-most all-time by a Jayhawk in a single season. Garlington also excelled in the classroom, making the Academic All-Big 12 First Team three times as well as the ESPN Academic All-District Team in 2010.

“I was so humbled and honored,” said Garlington. “It means so much. I think that’s the biggest honor that a student-athlete at KU can receive.”

Reed, the winningest player in KU men’s basketball history, finished his career with a 132-17 record, four Big 12 regular-season titles, three Big 12 postseason championships, one Final Four and one NCAA National Championship. This past season he was named Academic All-America First Team and Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award All-America First Team. Reed also made the Academic All-Big 12 First Team selection all three years he was eligible.

“It was great to be recognized,” said Reed. “A lot of people just think of us as KU basketball players, but we have to go to school, too. We have to do things that every student-athlete does, so it’s nice to be recognized for that.”

In addition to the Bob Frederick Senior Scholar Athletes of the Year, the ceremony recognized 10 Senior Athletes of the Year, the Senior Walk-on of the Year, the Del Shankel Teaching Excellence Award winner, the Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship recipients, the Dr. Gerald Lage Award honorees, the K Club Service Award and the Kansas Athletics Lifetime Service Award among many others.

More than 1,000 people, including the student-athletes, their parents, faculty and athletics administrators attended the special event to recognize the outgoing members of the senior class for their accomplishments both in competition and in the classroom.

Prior to the Bob Frederick Senior Scholar Athlete of the Year presentation, KU recognized 10 Senior Athletes of the Year. Kendra Bradley (women’s track and field), Karina Garlington, Brittany Hile (softball), Iuliia Kuzhil (swimming and diving), Jake Laptad (football), Brady Morningstar (men’s basketball),  Tyrel Reed, Nicole Schneider (rowing), Jordan Scott (men’s track and field) and T.J. Walz (baseball) all earned the distinction of Senior Athlete of the Year.

KU also recognized the 11 recipients of the Dr. Gerald Lage Award, the Big 12 Conference’s highest academic honor. In order to qualify, recipients needed at least 100 hours of earned credit with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.80 at the time of nomination. Jeff Bell (men’s golf), Brian Blackwell (football), Melanie Luthi (rowing), Paige Mazour (volleyball), Jaci Perryman (women’s track and field), Lauren Pollmiller (rowing), Alyssa Potter (swimming and diving), Brittany Potter (swimming and diving), Stacy Rachow (rowing), Nicole Schneider (rowing) and Jareb Stallbaumer (men’s track and field) all earned the award.

Schneider and Stallbaumer quickly returned to the stage to be recognized for another Big 12 honor as KU’s recipients of the Prentice Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship, a $7,500 award given to two student-athletes at each Big 12 institution who have at least a 3.5 GPA and are expected to enroll in a graduate or professional school within 15 months after they graduate.

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee then presented three awards. Alex Smith (football) took home the Senior Walk-on of the Year Award, while Dr. Samira Sayeh, a French and Italian professor at KU, earned the Del Shankel Teaching Excellence Award as voted on by members of KU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Other nominees for the award were Dr. Brent Steele (political science), Dr. James Heintz (business), Dr. Diane Nielsen (education) and Dr. Angela Lumpkin (health, sport and exercise science).

SAAC also presented the Kansas volleyball team with the Jayhawk CHAMPS Award for having the most points in a five-category competition between all teams. The categories were community service, attending home competitions for other teams, SAAC participation, team GPA and participation in department-sponsored life skills and career seminars.

Other award winners for the evening were Don Fambrough as the K Club Service Award recipient and Del Shankel winning the Kansas Athletics Lifetime Service Award. Fambrough was an all-conference guard as a Jayhawk who went on to serve two different stints as KU’s head football coach in addition to other jobs in the athletics department. Shankel served as the Kansas Athletics Interim AD, the interim president and CEO of the KU Alumni Association and KU’s chancellor among many other roles during his association with the university.

Kansas Athletics also recognized all of its Academic and Athletic All-Americans from the past year. Tyrel Reed, Amanda Maez (swimming and diving), Rebecca Swank (swimming and diving), Eric Fattig (men’s track and field) and Rebeka Stowe (women’s track and field) were all recognized as Academic All-Americans, while Marcus Morris (men’s basketball), Eric Fattig, Mason Finley (men’s track and field), Jordan Scott (men’s track and field), Kendra Bradley, Diamond Dixon (women’s track and field), Andrea Geubelle (women’s track and field), Denesha Morris (women’s track and field) and Taylor Washington (women’s track and field) were all acknowledged for being Athletic All-Americans.

Fattig also earned recognition as a recipient of the NCAA ELITE 88 Award at last year’s NCAA Championship for having the highest cumulative grade-point average of any participant.

Kansas 2010 Senior Athletes of the Year Bios

T.J. Walz, Baseball

T.J. Walz will go down as arguably the best pitcher to ever don a Kansas uniform. The senior right-hander currently holds the school record for strikeouts (285) and ranks second in Kansas history in innings pitched (297.1), wins (25) and games started (45). Walz will likely be the school leader in all five categories at the end of the season. After three solid years, Walz is enjoying his best season this year, having gone 3-1 in Big 12 games with a 2.04 ERA, which ranks 10th in the league. He also leads the league in strikeouts during conference games with 38. During his career, Walz has been named All-Big 12 twice and is well on his way to earning a third all-conference selection. He was selected by the Oakland Athletics in last season’s major league draft, but decided to come back to Kansas and finish his eligibility and most importantly, graduate.

Tyrel Reed, Men’s Basketball

Reed is the winningest player in KU history with a 132-17 record. The 132 victories rank second most in NCAA Division I history for a four-year period. Reed was named All-Big 12

Honorable Mention and was KU's third-leading scorer with 9.7 points per contest. He was named Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team and was also a three-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team selection. Reed, who was named the Danny Manning “Mr. Jayhawk” Award recipient, led Kansas with 72 threes made this season and made multiple threes in 23 games. He ended his career ninth in career three-pointers made (176). Reed led KU with 56 steals in 2010-11 and was the only Jayhawk that started every game. He also led the team with an 80.0 percent free throw percentage. Reed, a seven-time ADs and Commissioners honor roll member, was one of 10 finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. He graduated from KU in December and was accepted into KU Medicine's physical therapy school.

Brady Morningstar, Men’s Basketball

Morningstar led the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.8 in all games and was tops in the same stat in conference games at 4.4. His 2.8 assist-to-turnover ratio ranked 10^th nationally. Morningstar was an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention and a member of the Big 12 All-Defensive Team in 2010-11. Morningstar averaged 3.3 assists per game, which was 10th in the Big 12. Morningstar, who graduated in May 2010, scored 7.1 points per game for the season and was second on the team with 55 steals, one behind Tyrel Reed. A 2011 Academic All-Big 12 Second Team selection, Morningstar averaged 1.4 steals per game, which was ninth in the league. In his five-year career KU record, Kansas went 165-22 for an incredible 88.2 winning percentage.

Jake Laptad, Football

Laptad was a three-time All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selection, as well as a two-time Kansas Defensive Most Valuable Player. The defensive end finished his career ranked second in KU history with 21 sacks and was fifth in tackles for loss with 33.5. This past season he led KU linemen with 38 tackles. He led the team with 8.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. He also forced three fumbles, while serving as a team captain. He made 30 starts while playing in 50 games in his Jayhawk career.

Nicole Schneider, Rowing

Schneider has been a member of the First Varsity Eight throughout her senior season, including the team that placed fourth in the petite final of the Knecht Cup in Camden, N.J. A member of the Conference USA All-Academic Team in 2010, Schneider received the C-USA Academic Medal Award this year for having a cumulative grade-point average above 3.75. This year, Schneider was named to the All-Big 12 Academic At-Large Team and was one of only six athletes to be honored with a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Brittany Hile, Softball

On March 18, Brittany Hile become the second Jayhawk in softball program history to be drafted as she was taken in the fourth round by the NPF Diamonds as the 15th overall pick during the 2011 National Pro Fastpitch College Senior Draft. Hile has certainly saved the best for last having a breakout year during her senior season. The Olathe, Kan., native currently owns the third-most home runs in a season with 13, which also ranks in the top 25 nationally, while her career total of 23 is the fifth-best mark in KU history. Hile is also second in the record books for her .730 slugging percentage this season, while her 92 career RBIs tie for the seventh-most at Kansas.

Iuliia Kuzhil, Swimming & Diving

Kuzhil was a three-time NCAA qualifier for KU Swimming and Diving. She was the sole representative for the 2011 Championships was also one of two Jayhawks that represented KU at the 2010 NCAA Championships, where, with two ninth place finishes in both 100 & 200 yard backstroke, she earned All-America Honorable Mention Accolades. Kuzhil was named Big 12 Swimmer of the Week three times throughout her Kansas career and holds KU All-time records and Robinson Natatorium records in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke events. Her plans for next year are to graduate and stay in the states afterward.

Jordan Scott, Men’s Track

Scott, who only had outdoor eligibility remaining this year, has finished in the top three of each of his three meets this outdoor season, claiming a win at the Razorback Spring

Invitational. He currently has the NCAA’s third best mark of the season at 5.50 meters (18-00.75 ft.). Scott is a six-time Big 12 Champion and is the reigning NCAA Outdoor Champion in the pole vault.

Kendra Bradley, Women’s Track

Bradley advanced to the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championships and the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships as a member of the KU 4x400-meter relay team. Bradley, who earned All-America honors as a senior member of the KU 4x400-meter relay team, has also worked her way into the KU record books as a member of several relay teams. She is currently listed as a school record holding member in the indoor 4x400-meter relay. She ran on the third fastest and fourth fastest teams in school history for the outdoor 4x400-meter relay. Additionally, she is a member of the second fastest 4x100-meter relay team in KU history, accomplishing the fete at the Razorback Spring Invitational this season.

Karina Garlington, Volleyball

Garlington will leave Kansas as one of the top players in program history with the second-most kills in a Jayhawk career with 1,309, while her 3.18 kills per set career average is the seventh-best mark all-time. Garlington also owns three top 10 single-season marks, including her 407 kills in 2010 which were the eighth-most kills in a Jayhawk single season. Garlington’s talent also garnered national attention when she was named the program’s second AVCA National Player of the Week on Nov. 11, 2008. For her outstanding career on and off the court, Garlington was given the 2010-11 Marlene Mawson Female Athlete of the Year award.