The night began with recognition of the winners of the Tod Surmon award, presented to the wrestler with the most outstanding performance in a home dual meet. In 2007-08, the winners were Gardner, Zack Giesen and Jake Johnson for Cal State Bakersfield on Jan. 24, Johnson for Portland State on Jan. 25, Porfirio Madrigal for Menlo College on Jan. 25 and Gardner, Zupancic and Luke Feist for Cal State Fullerton on Feb. 10.
Next, captains Gardner, Zupancic, Doerner and Feist were presented with the Captains' Award.
Voted by the team, true freshman Kyle Barrett and redshirt freshman Lucas Espericueta were named the team's Most Outstanding Newcomers, while Johnson was deemed Most Improved. Gardner and Zupancic, both 2008 All-Americans, were named the squad's Most Valuable Wrestlers.
Gardner and Zupancic also both earned the Outstanding Scholar-Athlete award given to the wrestler who best combines academic and athletic excellence.
The Coaches Award, given to the individual who made the most significant contributions to the well-being of the team in terms of attitude, improvement, or special leadership, was awarded to Doerner and junior Kyle Pubols.
Stanford recorded one of its most successful years in history last season. In the course of the year, the Cardinal squad won more duals than any season in the last three decades (13), posted its highest Pac-10 finish in school history, its second-highest national finish and sent a program-best five wrestlers to the NCAA Championships. Stanford took 19th nationally, just its third all-time top-20 finish. For just the third time in program history and the second time in two years, Stanford produced two All-Americans in the same season. Owning two of the conference's four All-Americans, the Cardinal's 19th place finish was the best in the Pac-10.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now