RENO, Nev. - Luke Lippincott and Katie Holverson have been named the 2009-10 Doc Martie & Ruth I. Russell Award winners as the University of Nevada's top male and female senior student-athletes, Director of Athletics Cary Groth announced Thursday.
"Luke and Katie are very deserving recipients of our athletics department's most prestigious awards and have had outstanding collegiate careers," Groth said. "Both student-athletes have made significant contributions to their teams and our entire department and have excelled in competition, the classroom and the community."
The awards were named for J.E. "Doc" Martie, a former Nevada men's basketball coach and administrator, and Ruth I. Russell, a former director of women's athletics. Student-athletes are nominated by their head coaches and must be in their final year of eligibility and in good academic standing. The award winners are chosen in a vote by the athletics department staff.
A senior running back from Salinas, Calif., Lippincott made NCAA history when he reached 1,000 rushing yards in 2009, making Nevada the only school in the history of college football to have three 1,000-yard rushers in the same season. He tallied 1,034 rushing yards in 2009, his second career 1,000-yard season. Lippincott finished his career ranked fifth at Nevada with 3,014 career rushing yards and sixth with 34 career rushing touchdowns in his career. In all, he ranks in the top 10 in the Nevada single-season and single-game records books in 13 different categories. Lippincott was the recipient of the Humanitarian Award at the 2008 Roady's Humanitarian Bowl for his community service efforts. He earned first-team All-Western Athletic Conference honors and won the Golden Helmet Award as the team's Most Valuable Player in 2008 after leading the WAC in rushing with 109.2 yards per game that year. A two-time winner of Nevada's Striker Award for consistent and dominant play over a period of time, Lippincott graduated with his degree in psychology and a minor in health ecology in May of 2009 and started graduate work while finishing his playing career in 2010.
"I'm very proud of Luke. He is very deserving of the Doc Martie Award," Wolf Pack football coach Chris Ault said. "He has enjoyed an outstanding career here at Nevada. He is without question a great representative of our university and football program."
A senior pitcher from Anthem, Ariz., Holverson has helped Nevada to a pair of WAC championships and NCAA Tournament appearances so far in her career. She was one of 50 players on the watch list for the 2010 USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year Award and tossed her first career no-hitter in a 1-0 win over Colorado on March 19, 2010, the fourth no-hitter in school history. Holverson was named the 2009 WAC Pitcher of the Year and earned Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-Pacific Region honors after one of the finest single-season performances ever by a Nevada pitcher. She went 28-11 with a 1.70 earned-run average and one save last year and notched a career-high 237 strikeouts in 251.2 innings. Holverson has set the school single-season record for wins, ERA, opponents' batting average (.212), ranks second in appearances (46), starts (38), complete games (26), shutouts (5), innings pitched and strikeouts and will be at or near the top in virtually every career pitching record at Nevada when her career is over.
"I am so excited for Katie to be recognized for the contributions she has made to the University of Nevada during her career," Nevada softball coach Matt Meuchel said. "Katie has had a wonderful career here at Nevada, not just individually but in leading our team to two WAC championships. She is such a tough competitor and has elevated our program to another level during her four years in Silver and Blue."
