Andree Pickens Earns NCAA Top VIII Award
12/19/2002 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
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One of the most decorated athletes in the history of The University of Alabama athletics was named one of the NCAA Top VIII award winners for 2002.
The NCAA announced today that Andre? Pickens, a two-time national champion who led the Crimson Tide to the 2002 NCAA Championship last season was one of the nation’s elite seniors, earning the Top VIII Award.
“We are extremely proud of Andre? Pickens,” Alabama Athletics Director Mal Moore said. “She is a remarkable representative of The University of Alabama and our athletics department. This award is a fitting tribute to her career, just as she is a wonderful ambassador for the Crimson Tide.”
This is the 31st consecutive year that the NCAA Honors Committee has selected student-athletes who have performed admirably on and off the fields and courts as winners of the NCAA's Top VIII. In addition to Pickens, Top VIII’s 2003 class includes Ann Marie Brooks, (track and field/University of Missouri, Columbia); Michelle Cottrell, (basketball/Northern Kentucky University); Kari A. Groshek, (basketball/University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point); Ryan Johnson, (football/Montana State University-Bozeman) and Stacey A. Nuveman, (softball/UCLA); Jonathan Stinchcomb, (football/University of Georgia); and Aly Wagner (soccer/Santa Clara University).
The group will be honored January 12 during the Honors Dinner at the 97th annual NCAA Convention in Anaheim, California.
Pickens is the second Alabama gymnast to earn this award in the past five years. Meredith Willard was Top VIII in 1997.
“We are very, very proud of all Andre? has accomplished,” Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. “These awards, especially this latest one, are testaments to the kind of person she is and kind of drive to be great she possess.”
“To have one student-athlete from our program earn this accolade is a great compliment,” Patterson said. “To now have two athletes honored with the most prestigious award the NCAA gives to its student-athletes is a tremendous tribute to this program.”
Pickens, who finished her career last spring as a 14-time All-American and a two-time NCAA Champion, was also honored as the 2002 NCAA Woman of the Year for the State of Alabama and 2002 Southeastern Conference Athlete of the Year.
More than 340 student-athletes were nominated for this year's award by their colleges and universities. A committee comprised of representatives from member schools selected the state winners, reviewing the nominees' academic and athletics accomplishments, and community service and involvement.
Captain of the 2002 NCAA Champion Crimson Tide, Pickens earned Scholastic All-American honors as a senior as well as the Honda Award, given annually to the nation’s best gymnast. She is the only gymnast in NCAA history to earn five All-American honors in two different seasons (1999 & 2002).
She is only the fourth gymnast to earn SEC Female Athlete of the Year. Of the four conference gymnasts that have earned the award since its inception, three competed for Alabama, with Pickens joining Tide legends Penney Hauschild (1985) and Dee Foster (1990).
Pickens was named the 2002 NCAA Regional Gymnast of the Year, marking the fourth year she has earned that distinction; and the 2002 American Award winner, a national award given annually to the senior gymnast who best represents the ideal combination of athleticism, academic excellence and civic responsibility.
Selected as the SEC Gymnast of the Year for an unprecedented third consecutive year as a senior, Pickens won the all-around, vault, bars and balance beam titles at the 2002 SEC Gymnastics Championships. She is the first SEC gymnast to earn four individual league titles in the same year.
Pickens is currently serving as a student coach with the Tide program while finishing her degree in Biology.
