UM Athletes Named BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Award Winners

Feb. 25, 2000

Coral Gables, FL – University of Miami student-athletes Nick Gramsky (Cross-Country) and Julie Kemp (Swimming) have been named 1999-2000 BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Award winners, as determined by the league’s Academic Awards Committee. Both will receive $2,000 toward graduate studies.

Gramsky, a senior from Chesapeake Beach, MD, competes for the men’s cross-country program and is a distance runner on the track team. A BIG EAST Academic All-Star, Gramsky is a school-record in the 3,000 and 10,000 meters as part of the track team and this past October won the Disney Cross-Country Classic in Orlando. One of the team’s top performers, Gramsky was named Co-Newcomer of the Year his freshman season and Most Improved Male Track Athlete as a sophomore.

Kemp, a senior from Potomac, MD, is the team captain for the women’s swim team. Also a member of the BIG EAST Academic All-Star team, Kemp was named Most Valuable Swimmer last season. A qualifier for the 1999 NCAA Championships, she competes in the 500- and 1650-yard freestyle, 400-yard individual medley, 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard butterfly. Kemp is the fourth member of the women’s swim team to earn the BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Award.

Past Miami award winners are 1999, Frank Lichtenberger, Swimming & Emily Brelsford, Swimming, 1998, Arpad Odry, Tennis & Elizabeth Ackley, Swimming, 1997, Paul Hepchick, Swimming & Lee Nessel, Swimming, 1996, Gil Kovalski, Tennis & Maureen Faulkner, Basketball. Additionally, Men’s Tennis player Dennis Fine was part of the 1993-94 BIG EAST Post-Graduate Scholarship team. Kovalski was also named the BIG EAST Scholar Athlete of the Year in 1996.