Pickens Presented With the Honda Gymnastics Award
6/17/2002 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
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Two-time NCAA Champion Andree Pickens is taking time out from a summer spent at the University of Virginia’s Medical Academic Advancement Program, a six-week program designed to prepare students for careers in medicine, to travel to her home state of Texas today.
It’s not just a trip home to see family though. Pickens is being honored as the 2002 Honda Award for Gymnastics. Honda Awards are presented in a dozen sports, and signify the top athlete in each of those sports. The 12 winners will gathered at the Wyndam Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas tonight. One of the 12 women will be honored tonight with the Honda-Broderick Cup, given annually to the nation’s top female student-athlete.
“This is obviously a great honor, one that I share with my teammates and coaches,” Pickens said. “I could not have competed at this level without them. I am proud of the recognition this award has brought to my team and to the University of Alabama. While winning the NCAA team title is the highlight of my career, this certainly is a great achievement.”
Pickens will be joined at the event by her parents Byron and Denise Adams, Alabama’s head gymnastics coach Sarah Patterson, athletics director Mal Moore, associate athletics director Marie Robbins, faculty athletics representative Gene Marsh and the gymnastics team’s academic advisor Cathy Elliott.
Alabama’s four Honda Award winners is the second most in the 26 year history of the award. Previous winners are Penney Hauschild (1985 and 1986) and Dee Dee Foster (1993). Pickens was a finalist for the award in 1999.
“Andree’ is not only one of the most talented gymnasts in our program’s history, she is also one of the hardest workers,” Alabama head coach Sarah Patterson said. “Her career, especially this wonderful senior year, is a testament to what can be achieved when you combine those two factors, tremendous talent and a tremendous work ethic, together. She is also one of the most unselfish and giving young women I have ever had the privilege of working with. Andree’ has worked tirelessly within the University and Tuscaloosa community.”
Patterson’s comments were echoed by Alabama Athletics Director Mal Moore.
“Andree' is a model student-athlete,” Moore said. “She is a two-time NCAA Champion and as captain led her team to the 2002 NCAA Championship. I am even more proud of her academic and community service activities. She has truly made an impact on our campus, our University community, and the NCAA. She represents the very best in Intercollegiate Athletics”
After tearing her left Achilles tendon just days before the NCAA Championships her junior year, Pickens missed just one meet, the 2001 NCAA Championships, during her comeback. Despite a normal recovery period of nine to 12 months, Pickens was back for the very first meet of 2002 and proved she was back stronger than ever for her senior year.
A two-time NCAA Champion and captain of the Tide’s 2002 NCAA Champion squad, Pickens earned 14 All-American honors in three seasons (in gymnastics, All-American honors are decided at the NCAA Championships). She earned seven Southeastern Conference titles during her Tide tenure, including two all-around crowns. She is the first gymnast in SEC history to win four titles in a single season.
During her career, Pickens was the 1999 SEC Freshman of the Year and went on to be named SEC Gymnast of the Year as a sophomore, junior and senior. She is the only gymnast to earn the honor more than once. Pickens was also named NCAA Regional Gymnast of the Year all four years of her career.
She earned the 2002 Southeastern Conference Community Service Postgraduate Scholarship as well as the American Award, a national award given annually to the senior gymnast who best represents the ideal combination of athleticism, academic excellence and civic responsibility.
The Biology major was three-time Academic All-Southeastern Conference and earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average this fall. A finalist for a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, Pickens has been accepted into the Medical Academic Advancement Program at the University of Virginia, a six-week summer program designed to prepare students for careers in medicine.
One of five honorable mentions in "Glamour" magazine's "2001-02 Top-Ten College Women." Pickens was also selected as a recipient of the 2001-02 Outstanding Senior Award from the University’s National Alumni Association.
Pickens finishes her undergraduate degree next spring and plans on attending medical school.
Past Honda-Broderick Cup Winners
The Honda Awards is a program dedicated to honoring the nation's top women collegiate athletes. And each year the Honda-Broderick Cup is awarded to the athlete who by vote of athletic directors across the country is judged most deserving of recognition as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. Our list of champions below includes some of the finest athletes of our generation.
Winner Year School Sports
Jackie Stiles 2000-01 SW Missouri State Basketball
Cristina Teuscher 1999-00 Columbia Swimming & Diving Misty May 1998-99 Long Beach State Volleyball
Chamique Holdsclaw 1997-98 Tennessee Basketball
Cindy Daws 1996-97 Notre Dame Soccer
Jennifer Rizzotti 1995-96 Connecticut Basketball
Rebecca Lobo 1994-95 Connecticut Basketball
Mia Hamm 1993-94 North Carolina Soccer
Lisa Fernandez 1992-93 UCLA Softball
Missy Marlowe 1991-92 Utah Gymnastics
Dawn Staley 1990-91 Virginia Basketball
Suzy Favor 1989-90 Wisconsin Track & Field
Vicki Huber 1988-89 Villanova Track & Field
Teresa Weatherspoon 1987-88 Louisiana Tech Basketball
Mary T. Meagher 1986-87 California-Berkeley Swimming & Diving Kamie Ethridge 1985-86 Texas Basketball
Jackie Joyner 1984-85 UCLA Track & Field
Tracy Caulkins 1983-84 Florida Swimming & Diving Cheryl Miller 1983-84 Southern California Basketball
Deitre Collins 1982-83 Hawaii Volleyball
Tracy Caulkins 1981-82 Florida Swimming & Diving Jill Sterkel 1980-81 Texas Swimming & Diving Julie Shea 1979-80 North Carolina St Track & Field
Nancy Lieberman 1978-79 Old Dominion Basketball
Ann Meyers 1977-78 UCLA Basketball
Lucy Harris 1976-77 Delta State Basketball
