NATCHITOCHES, La. — The Louisiana Athletic Directors Association announced its 17th annual all-sports athletic award winners for the 2000-2001 year with LSU athletes taking seven of the 13 awards announced by LADA President Greg Burke, Athletic Director of Northwestern State University.
The awards, which had been presented in past years at the Louisiana Sports Writers Association convention, will be presented this year by the individual schools to the athletes at various fall on-campus functions. The 2002 awards are scheduled to be presented as part of the preliminary functions for the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
The seven LSU winners and their sports are: Marie Ferdinand (women’s basketball); Alan Morgan (men’s golf); Katy Harris (women’s golf); Britni Sneed (softball); Bruna Colosio (women’s tennis); Walter Davis (men’s track) and Myra Combs (women’s track).
Tulane had two winners in baseball players Jake Gautreau and men’s tennis player Michael Kogan as did Centenary: Ronnie McCollum (men’s basketball) and Lara Brown (soccer). Northwestern State’s Tony Taylor won for football and Anissa Parker of McNeese State was the choice in volleyball.
The nominees were submitted by school officials from throughout the state and then the athletic directors voted on the winners from the final list, although the athletic directors could not vote for candidates from their own schools.
Ferdinand was named a Kodak All-American as well as first-team All-SEC. She was named the Louisiana Player of the Year by the LSWA and led LSU in scoring, assists, steals and minutes played, while ranking in the top 10 in the SEC in each of those categories.
Men’s golfer Morgan was named honorable mention All-American after leading LSU this season with seven top-10 finishes, two individual titles and a stroke average of 71.5. The senior was the Golfer on the Year as chosen by the 2001 LSWA All-Louisiana golf team.
Harris earned first-team All-American honors as the best in the state in women’s golf for the nationally-ranked Lady Tigers. The senior had 9 top-10 finishes, including a third place finish in the NCAA Championships and a school and SEC record 65 in second round of SEC Championships.
LSU had the dominant softball pitcher in the state in Britni Sneed, the junior from Houston who earned All-American honors, along with SEC and Louisiana Player of the Year honors. Sneed finished the year with a 36-6 record, a 0.66 ERA with an LSU and SEC single-season strikeout total of 410.
The LADA winner in women’s tennis also won the 2001 SEC Player of the Year honor. Colosio, an LSU junior, earned her third All-American distinction this past year with a 26-4 record and finished the season as the nation’s 11th-ranked player.
To win the men’s track honor, all LSU’s Davis did was win the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor championships in the triple jump and placed second in both the indoor and outdoor long jump. He was only the fourth man in the 107-year history of the Penn Relays to win both horizontal jumps and his indoor performance helped LSU clinch their first NCAA Indoor Championship this past March.
On the women’s side, Combs won the SEC Championship in the long jump and earned three All-American honors during the 2001 season.
Tulane advanced to the College World Series behind the play of baseball winner Gautreau. The Conference USA Player of the Year was a Collegiate Baseball All-America with a .354 batting average, 20 homers and a school record 91 RBI.
The Wave’s other winner was a freshman men’s tennis player, who also won the C-USA Player and Freshman of the Year, earning All-American honors in both singles and doubles. The Wave won the C-USA title and advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals in singles.
Centenary’s Brown finished the season as the NCAA’s leading scorer in women’s soccer averaging 3.0 points per game and 1.28 goals per game as the Ladies posted a 15-4 record.
Another NCAA leading scorer from Centenary earned the men’s basketball honor as McCollum averaged 29.1 points per game in earning LSWA Player of the Year and Honorable Mention All-American honors.
McNeese’s winner in volleyball led the Cowgirls in almost every hitting category in her final season in a McNeese uniform. Parker was a first-team All-Southland Conference selection and was chosen the LSWA Player of the Year.
A record breaking season at Northwestern State was enough to give Taylor the nod of the LADA voters in football, as Taylor broke NSU’s all-time rushing and scoring records in only his third season while topping his own single-season school rushing record with 1,506 yards to lead the state. He was the SLC Offensive Player of the Year and a second-team All-American.