May 5, 2009

Lamar University senior golfers Justin Harding and Therese Nilsson took home the top honors as the male and female athletes of the year, respectively, and junior Brittney Williams was the recipient of the Babe Zaharias/John Gray Award at the athletic department's annual All-Sports Banquet at Courville's Restaurant on Monday.

Harding, a four-year letterwinner on the men's golf team, is a four-time All-Southland Conference performer, earning first-team honors twice including earlier on Monday. He has concluded his SLC career with a tie for first at last week's conference championship and posted three top-six finishes at the league's premier golf event.

The Cape Town, South Africa native has helped Lamar win four-consecutive SLC championships and advance to four straight NCAA Regional Tournaments. He was named the SLC Golfer of the Month in February of this year and earned PING All-South Central Region honors as a junior.

Therese Nilsson was named senior Female Athlete of the Year.

Nilsson recently concluded her career as the first player in SLC history to be named to the first team all four years. She also made league history as the only student-athlete to be named Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year and win individual honors at the league championship.

As a senior in 2008-09, the Vellinge, Sweden native led Lamar with a 76.89 stroke average and posted five top-10 finishes including her lone tourney win of the year at the Xavier/LPGA International Invitational in the fall. She concluded her career with five tournament titles and a 76.00 stroke average over 107 rounds. She also captured the Babe Zaharias/John Gray Award as the top junior female student-athlete at Lamar a year ago.

Brittney Williams was named the Babe Zaharias/John Gray Award Winner.

A three-year letterwinner on the hardwood, Williams is one of the most prolific scorers and rebounders in school history, ranking seventh all-time in both categories with 1,213 points and 587 rebounds, making her one of just six players in school history to score over 1,000 points and grab over 500 rebounds.

A native of Spring, Texas, she is a three-time All-Southland Conference selection, earning third team honors as a freshman and sophomore and second team honors as a junior, as well as being selected as the SLC Freshman of the Year in 2007. She added first team all-academic SLC honors for her efforts this season.

Men's tennis player Maciej Bogusz, baseball player Brian Taylor and women's basketball player Nikki Williams were honored with Mary and John Gray Awards as the graduating seniors with the highest grade point averages.