CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Big South Conference today honored Coastal Carolina’s Marcie Veitch (women’s track & field), Radford’s Alexandra Spector (women’s tennis), Winthrop’s Patricia Coimbra (women’s tennis) and Liberty’s Patrick Walker (wrestling) with the prestigious George A. Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence.  Veitch is a 4.00 student in biology, Spector is a 4.00 student in communication sciences and Coimbra is a 4.00 student in finance/accounting.  Walker graduated in December with a 3.96 in religion/biblical studies. 

Big South member institutions nominate one male and one female student-athlete – regardless if the sport is sponsored by the Big South – for the annual Christenberry Award.  The award is given to the male and female student-athlete who attain the highest GPA during their college careers and are graduates of a member institution during the past year.  In case of ties, additional awards are provided.  The honor is named for George A. Christenberry, the former President of Augusta College (now Augusta State University) and one of the founders of the Big South Conference.  A member of the Big South Hall of Fame, Christenberry served as the League’s first President from 1983-86.  It is the sixth time in the last seven years that more than two student-athletes have been so honored.

“The Christenberry Award is the highest academic honor awarded to Big South student-athletes,” said Big South Conference Commissioner Kyle B. Kallander.  “We congratulate Marcie, Alexandra, Patricia and Patrick for their accomplishments in the classroom and on the field of play.  Their careers truly exemplify the highest ideals of the Big South Conference.”

Veitch (Ontario, Canada) recently closed out her Big South career with a third-place finish in the pole vault at the Outdoor Track & Field Championships.  It was the eighth All-Conference honor of her career, having placed in the top three in every Conference Championship meet during her time at Coastal Carolina.  She was the Big South individual champion in the pole vault as a junior with a jump of 11’5.75” at the 2008 Indoor Championship, which ranks second in school history.  That same year, Veitch was second in the pole vault in the Outdoor Championship.  She also cleared a season-best of 10’8 during the outdoor season at the Asics/Winthrop Invitational her junior season.  In her sophomore season of 2006-07, Veitch was an NCAA East Region qualifier in outdoor track and was the Conference’s outdoor champion with a then-career best mark of 11’3.75, which was the fourth time in program history a Chanticleer athlete cleared 11-feet in the pole vault.  Veitch was runner-up in the pole vault at the Big South Indoor Track Championships, and during the season she set an indoor personal-best of 10’10” at the Maryland Terrapin Invitational.  Veitch placed third in the pole vault at both the Big South Indoor and Outdoor Track Championships as a freshman to earn her first career All-Conference accolades.  Meanwhile, Veitch has been named to the Big South Presidential Honor Roll each year and was the Big South Women’s Indoor Track and Outdoor Track Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2008-09.  She plans to attend medical school upon graduation.

Spector (Laurel, Md.) concluded her Radford tennis career with 44 career singles wins and was 35-27 as a doubles participant.  This past season, Spector won six singles matches and posted a 12-9 mark playing mostly at No. 2 doubles for the Highlanders.  She also placed second in flight No. 6 at the Hofstra Invitational, placed third in the Purple bracket at the ETSU Invitational, and during the month of March, won five consecutive doubles matches with partner Mia Drobnjak.  As junior, she went 9-3 in singles and captured the Grey bracket at the ETSU Fall Invitational, in addition to winning the Flight C consolation bracket at UNC Wilmington.  Spector won 14 singles matches as a sophomore and went 11-11 in doubles competition.  In her freshman season of 2005-06, Spector was 16-13 overall in singles and 9-3 in doubles.  She won the singles “B” bracket at the Hollins Fall Festival, and teamed to win the doubles “D” bracket at ETSU in her first collegiate tennis tournament.  Spector has been a Dean’s List honoree four consecutive years and is a two-time Most Outstanding Student Award winner at Radford.  She has been named to the Big South Presidential Honor Roll three times, and was one of two recipients of the Big South Conference’s inaugural Sunbelt Rentals Scholarship in January, in which she received $4,000 from Sunbelt Rentals toward her final semester as an undergraduate.  She was named to the 2006 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic Team and the Big South Women’s Tennis All-Academic Team in 2009.

Coimbra (Sao Paulo, Brazil) graduates Winthrop following a stellar career with the Lady Eagles.  She earned All-Conference at singles all four years of her career, recording a 59-48 record and helping Winthrop capture three Big South Championships and trips to the NCAA Tournament.  Coimbra also collected All-Conference honors as a doubles player her junior and senior seasons, and is currently an impressive 22-2 in her doubles career.  Against League opponents, Coimbra lost just one singles match in her career en route to a 22-1 record in Big South play.  The Big South Women’s Tennis Freshman of the Year in 2005-06, Coimbra has also been a two-time Flight Champion at No. 2 singles.  Coimbra is a three-time member of the Big South Women’s Tennis All-Academic Team and was the Women’s Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year winner in 2008 and 2009.  During her academic career, she has been honored as Winthrop’s Griffin-Guettler Award winner, which is given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA, as well as Winthrop’s John T. Roddy Award recipient.  Coimbra has been named to the President’s List all seven semesters, and was named to the ITA All-Academic Team in 2007.

Walker (Newark, Del.) compiled a 12-5 record in 2008-09, including a 9-3 dual match record.  This past season he recorded a 4-3 decision over No. 16 Nate Everhart of Indiana and finished fourth at the Nittany Lion Open.  He has helped re-establish Liberty’s wrestling program, as the Flames have captured the NCAA East Regional title all three years since the program was reinstated in 2006-07.  Walker was a two-time national qualifier (2007 and 2008) in the heavyweight division and amassed a 72-24 career record, including 21 wins by pin.  Walker was named to the NWCA All-Academic Team in 2008 and helped Liberty finish the year ranked No. 3 nationally in the final NWCA 2007-08 All-Academic Wrestling Team listing with a 3.286 team GPA.  He also was selected to the inaugural VaSID All-State Team, garnering First-Team All-State honors.  The 2008 NCAA Regional champion, Walker entered the NCAA Championship ranked No. 16 nationally at heavyweight.  In his first year at Liberty in 2007, Walker was one of three Liberty wrestlers to garner regional rankings and advanced to his first NCAA Championship meet, where he went 1-2 and pinned Army’s Nathan Thobaben for his victory.  A two-time Big South Presidential Honor Roll member, Walker’s work in the classroom helped Liberty’s wrestling program achieve an NCAA Public Recognition Award this year for having a multi-year APR score in the Top 10 percent of all wrestling programs in the nation.
 
Below are the 2008-09 Big South Conference Christenberry Award candidates, as nominated by their institutions:

Charleston Southern:  Justin Witzmann (football), Melanie Blaschke (soccer)
Coastal Carolina:  Austin Fleet (baseball), Marcie Veitch (track & field)
Gardner-Webb:  Jonathan Ahearn (baseball), Bethany Martin (volleyball)
High Point:  Michael Earman (soccer), Shauna Marsh (cross country/track)
Liberty:  Patrick Walker (wrestling), Rachel Hammond (basketball)
Presbyterian:  Richard McKinney (football), Laura Elaine Bowers (cross country)
Radford:  Martin Sayer (tennis), Alexandra Spector (tennis)
UNC Asheville:  Nate Neal (soccer), Lauren Wingo (soccer)
VMI:  Jacob Rochester (football), Celine Ziobro (soccer)
Winthrop:  Dane Yoder (baseball), Patricia Coimbra (tennis)