Junior Paul White was named SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year.
LSU Sports Interactive
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — LSU’s Ken Skupski and Mark Growcott were named first-team All-Southeastern Conference and Paul White was named SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year, the league office announced Tuesday.
White, from Lake Charles, is junior biology major who has a 3.93 grade point average. He spent time this season at No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles.
“Paul is an excellent example, in the truest sense, of what a student-athlete is,” Brown said. “This is one of many awards he’s received and we’re proud of him.”
White was named an ITA Scholar Athlete last year and has won three Athletic Director’s Cup awards for his work in the classroom.
It was the second year in a row that an LSU player was named Scholar Athlete of the Year. Bryan Fisher, a 2004 graduate, earned the award last season.
Skupski was named to the first team in singles and doubles. It was the second year in a row the sophomore from Liverpool, England was named first-team All-SEC.
Skupski plays No. 1 singles and doubles for the Tigers and earlier this year won the SEC Coaches’ Indoor Singles Championship.
Growcott was first-team doubles and second-team in singles. He has shared time at the No. 1 and 2 singles positions with Skupski. He is currently ranked No. 81 in singles. Growcott, a junior, is a junior college transfer from Brimingham, England.
Skupski and Growcott are the seventh ranked doubles team in the nation. Their 9-2 record was the best of any team in the conference at the No. 1 position.
“Ken and Mark earned this honor on the courts and on the practice courts,” Brown said. “They are very deserving of their honors, and if they reach their potential there will be many more to come.”
The No. 12-ranked Tigers begin play Thursday in the SEC Tournament in Athens, Ga. They face Auburn at 8 a.m. in the first round.
FIRST-TEAM ALL-SEC
Jesse Witten, Kentucky
Catalin Gard, Ole Miss
Hamid Mirzadeh, Florida
Greg Ouellette, Florida
Scott Brown, Vanderbilt
Tom Eklund, South Carolina
Gabor Zoltan Pelva, Auburn
John Isner, Georgia
Rohan Gajjar, Arkansas
Antonio Ruiz, Georgia
Ken Skupski, LSU
#Mark Growcott/Ken Skupski, LSU
#John Isner/Antonio Ruiz, Georgia
SECOND TEAM ALL-SEC
Mark Dietrich, Tennessee
Luigi D