Since 1987, the Tiger Club has presented annual awards to Occidental College’s most outstanding male and female scholar-athletes. In recent years the recognitions expanded from the Roy Dennis Scholar-Athlete Award only, to the Grant Dunlap and Pat Yeomans awards as well. The 2011 recipients included Alex Wertheimer, Stephanie Babij, Ross Pomerantz, Julianne Monday, Miner Ross and Kelly Young.
Criteria for nominations include a minimum GPA of 3.0 and high achievement in intercollegiate athletics at the varsity level. The department is proud to present the following awards to these six individuals.
Class of 2011 Roy Dennis Scholar-Athlete The Roy Dennis Scholar-Athlete is the highest honor bestowed by the athletic department and honors Roy Dennis, a former coach and athletic director at Occidental College. The award is given annually to the senior male and female student who, in the opinion of the department, achieved the most in athletics and academics.
Representing the Occidental Football program, was Wertheimer, a defensive lineman for the Tigers who saw his football career end prematurely with a knee injury mid-way through his senior season. To that point in the season the Everett, Wash. native had recorded 5.5 sacks for a loss of 27 yards with seven tackles for a loss, 29 total tackles and had hurried the QB 11 times. On opening night, Wertheimer sacked Menlo’s quarterback four times and forced a fumble as he posted 11 tackles. Wertheimer was a First Team All SCIAC in 2008 and also earned First Team All-West Region in 2009 to go along with SCIAC Defensive Player of the Year honors and Second Team All-American recognition in 2009. In 2010 he earned Honorable Mention following his shortened season.
Off the gridiron, Wertheimer was busy hitting the books as a Biology major. He earned the Dennis A. VanderWeele Award to Fund Research during the summer of 2009 and was a awarded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Science Education Grant for a Summer Research Internship at Occidental College in the summer of 2009.
Wertheimer has done extensive research, with Stem cell Transplant into Rat model of Epilepsy, Genetic Engineering of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells, the Morris Water Maze and Hippocampal learning in a rat model of hemi-parkinsonsonism. His senior research project was regarding adenosine therapy of pharmacoresistant epilepsy, which he presented during his Senior Comprehensive course.
As stated by his professor, Dr. Gary Schindelman, “I was able to observe/partake in Alex’s progress into a top-notch student at Occidental College. I had Alex for four courses and he was always a good student, but he blossomed into an exceptional one through focus and hard work. If I had to sum Alex up in a few words I would choose: Intelligent, diligent, focused, respectful….a true Gentleman-Scholar-Athlete.”
Babij received the same award as a member of the women’s basketball team. The Economics major from Ontario, Ore. graduated magna cum laude after excelling in the classroom. She was named to the Dean’s List every semester at Occidental, while also being a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta, the economics honor society. She was selected the Bennett Schwartz Most Outstanding Economics Major and passed her Senior Comps with distinction and received the departmental Letter of Commendation in Economics.
On the hardwood, Babij continued her success while donning the Black and Orange. Babij, the reigning 2009-10 Player of the Year, First Team All-West Region, earned First Team All-SCIAC recognition for the third time of her career following her senior campaign in which she led the Tigers to their fourth consecutive Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and second NCAA Post Season Tournament appearance in school history. After reaching the 1,000 point plateau in 2010-11, she will go down as one of the most decorated women’s basketball players to pull on a uniform for Occidental College.
A versatile player who has moved around the court, Babij has logged more than 3200 minutes, starting all 104 games in which she appeared in. This winter she played a different role than in years past, finishing with 8.1 points per game, shooting 49 percentage from the field. Babij handed out 1.9 assists per game and recorded seven blocks in SCIAC play as she was on the court a shade under 31 minutes per game.
Class of 2011 The Dunlap Award The Dunlap Award honors Grant Dunlap, who contributed to Occidental in the roles of coach, athletic director, and professor. The award is given annually to the senior male and female student who, in the opinion of the department, excelled in a team sport while shining in the classroom.
Pomerantz, a left handed pitcher on the baseball team was the male recipient of the Dunlap Award. A four year letter winner at Occidental, he has accumulated 217.1 innings pitched with 29 starts in his 62 appearances. The southpaw struck out 152 batters and his opposition hit .268 against him. Despite being hurt his senior season, he surpassed career bests in starts, innings pitched, victories (four) and strike outs.
After graduating with a degree in Psychology, Pomerantz, a Marin County native, will be pursuing a career in Advertising in the Bay Area.
As a member of the women’s water polo team, Monday’s performance in the pool has paved the way for the program’s success in recent years, but it has been her work ethic and leadership that has had a truly profound impact on the program.
During her career as a Tiger, she has received the Collegiate Water Polo All-Academic Award all four years, while being a two time Collegiate Water Polo All-American. She was selected team captain two years as well as team MVP. In her final two seasons, Monday was selected to the First Team All-SCIAC, as well as being recognized on the Collegiate III National Championship All-Tournament Team. In the first year of existence, Monday also received SCIAC All-Academic accolades this spring.
Hailing from Encinitas, Calif. Monday has led by example in the pool. In her career she played in 119 games, scoring 203 goals with 58 assists and 136 drawn ejections. Defensively she recorded eight field blocks with 111 steals. This spring she started in all 28 games, leading the Tigers to a SCIAC Co-Championship and a No. 1 ranking for much of the season.
Academically, Monday has been just as successful, graduating with honors as a Psychology major and Sociology minor. A member of the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society, Psi Chi Psychology National Honor Society, and Mortar Board National Honor Society, Monday will take her teaching to UC Sand Diego, where she was granted the Professional Advantage Post-Graduation Fellowship in Psychology. Following her fellowship, she will spend two years working for Teach for America as a special education teacher in a low-income neighborhood.
Class of 2011 The Yeomans Award The Yeomans Award honors Pat Yeomans, who is considered the greatest tennis player in Occidentals history. The award is given annually to the senior male and female student who, in the opinion of the department, excelled in an individual sport while shining in the classroom.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest in Medford, Ore. Ross brought his talents to the pool as a four-year member the men’s swim team. A natural leader, he was named a team captain this past winter. While wearing the Black and Orange, Ross has earned spots among the Oxy Top-10 in both the 50 and 100 yard freestyle. Additionally, the freestyle specialist was a member of the school record holding 200 Free Relay team.
Academically, Ross graduated cum laude with a degree in Biochemistry. He has done extensive research of vitamin K analogs and will use the knowledge he obtained as he attends medical school.
Finally, a young woman who has more accomplishments to come. A transfer from the College of San Mateo in the fall of 2009, Young wasted no time making a name for herself at Occidental, in the SCIAC and in the Division III circle.
In half the time that most students get to represent Oxy, the San Bruno, Calif. native has distinguished herself as the most accomplished female field event athlete in the history of the college. Young is a certain future Oxy Track & Field Hall of Famer as she was the 2011 SCIAC Athlete of the Year after becoming a three-time SCIAC champion. Her final shot put throw at the 2011 SCIAC Championships broke a 25-year old meet record. Overall, she is a five-time All-SCIAC recipient. In 2010 she was a Division III All-American in Javelin as she was third in the country. Young holds all four throwing event school records.
Currently, she is ranked Top-12 in the four events, ranking third, sixth, ninth and twelfth and will compete at the NCAA National Championships May 26-29 in hopes of adding more accolades to her trophy cabinet.
In the classroom, Young has stood out as well, earning USTFCCCA All-Academic honors in 2010 and will repeat in 2011 as a Critical Theory and Social Justice major.
Over the course of the last four years there have been 74 student-athletes, 67 of whom competed during the 2010-11 academic year. Forty-seven of those Tigers were four-year letter winners at Occidental College. The Tigers have won 10 SCIAC Titles since 2007 with four of those teams advancing to the NCAA Division III Playoffs. Additionally, a number of individuals have advanced to NCAA Division III Championships in cross country, swimming & diving and track & field.
In 2010-11 the Department of Athletics produced a pair of SCIAC Championship teams, two SCIAC Athletes of the Year, five nationally ranked teams, six individual SCIAC Champions, with one two-time and one three-time winners, seven SCIAC Athlete of the Week recognitions (one two-time), 10 All-West Region selections, 44 All-SCIAC awards, 122 total SCIAC All-Academic recipients and a total of 473 student-athletes at Occidental this year.
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