BATON ROUGE — LSU gymnasts Kelly Phelan and Emily Ellis and men’s golfer Garrett Runion spoke to incoming students at the National Student Exchange Orientation on Thursday morning as part of the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program.
The National Student Exchange allows students from universities around the country to take classes from other universities during their academic tenure. The program began in 1967 with three universities and now includes over 177 participating institutions in the United States and Canada.
Phelan, a junior from Orlando, competed in the all-around in every meet for the Tigers last season. She concluded the regular season ranked No. 3 in the nation on the floor exercise and 18th in the all-around. In the NCAA Central Regional Championships, she won a share of the all-around title and claimed the out-right floor crown with a 9.925 score. For the season, she won a total of eight individual even titles and three all-around titles.
A junior from Fayette, Ala., Ellis won two individual vaulting titles in 2005, claiming top honors against Centenary and Alabama. She scored a career-best 9.950 against the Crimson Tide and did not score below a 9.750 during the season.
Runion, a junior from Orlando, was a member of the SEC Good Works Team in 2004 and 2005. He is a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and has participated in community service events on campus throughout the year. He earned a redshirt last year after not making a tournament appearance.
The CHAMPS (Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success)/Life Skills Program was designed by the NCAA to help student-athletes realize higher academic achievement, increase likelihood of graduation and enter a chosen profession with a higher level of vision, knowledge, motivation, self-responsibility and greater overall success. In Spring 2003, the CHAMPS/ Life Skills Program honored one of LSU’s most memorable graduates, Shaquille O’Neal, by naming the program after him.