Winners To Be Announced April 5
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Ole Miss men’s tennis player and women’s track and field member Neal Tisher have been nominated for the Southeastern Conference H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Award, the league office announced Wednesday.
Twenty-eight student-athletes – one male and one female from each of the SEC’s 14 institutions – have been nominated for the award.
Each year, the SEC, in conjunction with AT&T, an SEC Corporate Champion, provides the league’s male and female McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Postgraduate Scholarship recipients with a $15,000 post-graduate scholarship. The 26 remaining male and female finalists for the award will also receive a $7,500 postgraduate scholarship.
The recipients of the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Awards will be revealed on April 5.
The SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award was first presented in 1986. The honor was renamed the H. Boyd McWhorter SEC Scholar-Athletes of the Year in May 1990 to honor the former commissioner who served the conference from 1972-86.
The award recipients are chosen by a committee of Faculty Athletics Representatives from the 14 SEC institutions and are honored at the SEC Spring Meetings in Sandestin, Fla. on May 30.
Last year’s McWhorter Award recipients were South Carolina baseball player Michael Roth and Georgia swimmer Wendy Trott.
Highlights of the Ole Miss nominees include:
Adrian Forberg Skogeng, Tennis (Male McWhorter Nominee)
• Expected to graduate with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in managerial finance in May 2013.
• A member of the Chancellor’s Honor Roll, the Dean’s Honor Roll and the SEC Academic Honor Roll. A CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-District selection and an ITA Scholar-Athlete.
• Helped his tennis team earn the Chancellor’s Cup Team Award each of the last three years, representing the men’s athletics team with the highest GPA for each calendar year.
• A member of the Ole Miss men’s tennis team that won the SEC West Division in 2010 and has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in three consecutive years.
• Represented Norway in the Davis Cup in 2009 and 2010.
• Has volunteered with the North Mississippi Regional Medical Center, the Oxford, Miss., Special Olympics and the Ball Collection for Oxford Preschools and Elementary Schools.
• A native of Oslo, Norway, he is the son of Stein-Erik Skogeng and Froydis Forberg.
Neal Tisher, Track and Field (Female McWhorter Nominee)
• Expected to graduate with a B.A. degree in psychology with a minor in biology in May 2013.
• A member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll, the Chancellor’s Honor Roll and the Dean’s Honor Roll. A U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Selection. Inducted into the Gamma Sigma Alpha Honors Society, a National Greek Honors Society.
• Ole Miss’ school record holder both indoors and outdoors in the pole vault. Earned USTFCCCA Honorable Mention All-America honors in 2012, a season in which she was a dual-event scorer (pole vault and javelin) at the SEC Championships.
• A fundraising volunteer at St. Jude Hospital and has participated in both the Breast Cancer Awareness Walk and the Out of Darkness Suicide Awareness Walk.
• A member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, where she served as a Panhellenic Delegate in 2010-11 and a housing manager in 2011-12.
• A member of the Ole Miss Homecoming Court and selected to Who’s Who Among American Colleges and Universities.
• A native of Mobile, Ala., she is the daughter of David and Cornelia Tisher