University at Albany senior Emil Bove and Stony Brook University senior Jenny Payne were named the 2002-03 America East Men's and Women's Scholar-Athletes of the Year it was announced today by Chris Monasch, Commissioner of America East. Bove, a co-captain on the America East Champion men's lacrosse team, was also the Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year last season and is the first repeat selection since the program was instituted in 1996-97.
A committee of athletics administrators and NCAA Faculty Athletics Representatives chose the honorees from the Scholar-Athletes of each of the 21 championship sports offered by America East. Those 21 were selected from the nearly 3,700 student-athletes who competed at America East institutions last year.
Bove, who recently graduated with a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade-point average as a public policy and economics major, was one of 29 men chosen from all the spring sports in NCAA Division I, II and III to receive an NCAA postgraduate scholarship. The Seneca Falls, N.Y. native was also a Verizon Academic All-America choice and was awarded the ECAC Merit Medal as Albany's top senior male student-athlete. He also received the University at Albany's Outstanding Senior Award, the Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence, and the Athletes Leadership Award. A defender, Bove was an all-championship selection after leading the Great Danes to the 2003 America East Championship and the program's first appearance in the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship.
Payne, the 2002 America East Cross Country Champion after finishing with the sixth-best time in conference history, recently graduated with a 3.85 grade-point average as a biology major. She earned All-America honors at the NCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Championship after finishing 23rd in that event. The Cary, N.C. native was one of 29 women chosen from all the fall sports in NCAA Division I, II and III to receive an NCAA postgraduate scholarship. She was also a Verizon Academic All-America selection last season and was named Stony Brook University's Female Athlete of the Year in each of the past two years. Like Bove, she was cited for a Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence.
Other America East Scholar-Athletes named earlier this month were: Alissa Gibbs (volleyball) and Theresa Masse (women's lacrosse) of Albany; Amy Weissberg (women's tennis) of Binghamton University; Kristin Knesek (softball) and Liam Revel (men's indoor track and field) of Boston University; Chris Holmes (golf), Katharina Lindner (women's soccer), Asaf Lubezky (men's soccer) and Pedja Zdravkovic (men's tennis) of University of Hartford; Kate Abbott (women's swimming and diving), Jacob Jentzer (men's swimming and diving) and Viktoriya Rybalko (women's indoor track and field, women's outdoor track and field) of University of Maine; Dan Hocking (men's cross country) of University of New Hampshire; Brendan Ryan (baseball) of Northeastern University; Jonathan Brims (men's outdoor track and field) of Stony Brook; Grant Anderson (men's basketball), Dawn Cressman (women's basketball) and Alexis Ressler (field hockey) of University of Vermont.
Member institutions of America East Conference for the 2002-03 academic year included Albany, Binghamton, Boston University, Hartford, Maine, New Hampshire, Northeastern, Stony Brook, and Vermont. University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) will join the conference for the 2003-04 academic year.