Gibbs Bentley, Nead Nominees For McWhorter Post-Graduate Scholarship
Monday, March 24, 2008 | Soccer
Soccer player Bianca Gibbs Bentley and swimmer Kevin Nead have been nominated by the University of Florida for the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship.
The H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship has been presented by the Southeastern Conference since 1986 to the league's top male and female scholar-athletes.
Each year, the SEC, in conjunction with AT&T, an SEC Corporate Champion sponsor, provides the league's male and female McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship recipients with a $10,000 post-graduate scholarship. The 22 remaining male and female finalists for the award will also receive a $5,000 post-graduate scholarship. The award recipients are chosen by a committee of Faculty Athletics Representatives from the 12 SEC institutions and are honored at the SEC Spring Meetings in Sandestin, Fla. on May 29.
The Southeastern Conference will name the 2008 recipients of the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship on April 6 in conjunction with National Student-Athlete Day.
Gibbs Bentley, a senior from Cape Coral, Fla., has earned a 3.94 grade point average, majoring in Business Management. She has turned in a 4.0 GPA in six of her seven semesters at UF. Gibbs Bentley is a four-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and the Dean's List. In 2006, she was named first-team as a Arthur Ashe, Jr., Sports Scholar and has been a two-time ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District third team selection.
A four-year letterwinner, Gibbs led the Gators in points scored in 2005 SEC play, tying for third in that season's SEC points standings. She was named Florida's Most Improved Player for the 2003-04 season.
Gibbs is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and served as a teaching assistant this spring in the Principles of Marketing classes at UF.
| Nominees for McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship | |
| The SEC Office will release each of its institution's nominees periodically until the April 6 winners are announced. The schedule is as follows: | |
| School | Nominees or Announcement Date |
| Alabama | Joseph Sykora, Golf (Male) Jordan Praytor, Softball (Female) |
| Arkansas | Tyler Hill, Track & Field (Male) Stacy Lewis, Golf (Female) |
| Auburn | Cole Bennett, Football (Male) Kristen Hastrup, Swimming & Diving (Female) |
| Florida | Kevin Nead, Swimming & Diving (Male) Bianca Gibbs Bentley, Soccer (Female) |
| Georgia | March 25 |
| Kentucky | March 26 |
| LSU | March 27 |
| Mississippi | March 28 |
| Miss. State | March 31 |
| South Carolina | April 1 |
| Tennessee | April 2 |
| Vanderbilt | April 3 |
| National Student-Athlete Day was created in 1987 by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS) and Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society and presented by the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). National Student-Athlete Day is held each April 6 to celebrate outstanding student-athletes who have achieved excellence in academics and athletics while having made significant contributions to the community. It is also a time to recognize those parents, teachers, coaches and school systems which make it possible for young people to find the balance between academics and athletics. | |
She has volunteered her time at local middle schools and coaching youth girls soccer. As a member of the Goodwill Gators, she has visited area hospitals, speaking to patients about participating in intercollegiate athletics.
Nead, a senior from Ithaca, N.Y., has earned a 3.96 grade point average, with a major in Zoology. He transferred to Florida in the Fall of 2005 after attending University of Virginia for one year.
He was the 2007 and 2008 SEC Swimming & Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a two-time UF Swimming Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He made the SEC Academic Honor Roll and the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll. In 2006-07, Nead earned a spot on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America third-team. He has been selected to the Dean's List six times, the President's List three times and has been awarded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Fellowship, the William Carleton Scholarship and inducted into the Matthew's Society. As one of the three recipients of the Hughes Medical Institute Research Fellowship, Nead spent six months in Lille, France, in 2007. There he studied the genetics of Type II Diabetes under Dr. Phillippe Froguel, the first most cited Diabetes researcher in the world. Earlier this month, Nead was named one of the three male finalists for the 2008 Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship.
Athletically, he was a captain of this year's Gator swim team and has earned All-SEC honors four times. He is a two-time U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier, three-time NCAA Championship qualifier and a two-time honorable mention All-American. He finished fourth at the 2007 SEC Championships in the 400 individual medley.
Nead has volunteered at Shands Hospital, assisting in emergency radiology and care, served an internship in orthopedic surgery as well as in researching juvenile obesity and diabetes. He is a member of the Goodwill Gators, speaking to children and participating in charity sporting events. He has also served as a member of both the UF and UVA Student-Athlete Advisory Committees.
