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Kelly Ellison, Justyna Mudy earn SSAC's top female awards
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Shorter University junior
basketball player Kelly Ellison has been named the Southern States
Athletic Conference Female Honor Student-Athlete and senior runner
Justyna Mudy has garnered Southern States Athletic Conference
Female Athlete of the Year honors as announced by the league on
Monday night.
The pair were honored at the conference's annual end-of-year awards banquet held in Montgomery, Ala. The selection of Ellison and Mudy for their respective accolades completed a Shorter sweep of the conference's top two awards, which are chosen from a long list of nominees by a committee appointed by the SSAC commissioner.
Shorter's athletic prowess over the past several years has been well documented in the overall records and national finishes of its 21 varsity intercollegiate teams, however the raw success of Shorter Athletics is evident in the individual achievements, both on and off the playing surface, of its student-athletes.
Ellison and Mudy are the latest examples.
Ellison took home the league's most prestigious honor in the Female Honor Student-Athlete award. It marked the third straight year that a Shorter student-athlete has picked up the honor as the conference top female scholar-athlete -- former Lady Hawk softball standout Becca Thomas won the award for the 2008-09 academic year and former Lady Hawk women's basketball captain Whitni Tucker earned the honor at the conclusion of 2009-10.
The Honor Student-Athlete award is given to the student-athlete with at least junior standing that best exemplifies the virtues of scholarship, servant leadership and athletic excellence. Grade point average, community service, on-field excellence and adherence to the values of the NAIA Champions of Character program.
Ellison, a 2009-10 NAIA All-American as a point guard for the Lady Hawks, is the epitome of an Honor Student-Athlete.
Her on-court accomplishments are plenty -- the Columbus, Ga., native has captured two straight All-SSAC nods since transferring to Shorter from NCAA I Stetson University after her freshman season.
Ellison has guided the Lady Hawks to two straight appearances in the NAIA Women's Basketball National Championship, has led Shorter in scoring, assists and steals over the past two seasons and is 330 points away from 1,000 in her Shorter career -- she has averaged 335 points a season in her first two years with the Lady Hawks.
Off the court, Ellison is a 4.0 student, a two-time Academic All-SSAC choice and this year, was named an NAIA Scholar-Athlete for the first time.
While Ellison has established herself as one of the league's most dynamic and versatile student-athletes, Mudy has secured her place in Shorter -- and arguably SSAC -- history as one of its most dominant athletes.
Mudy, who hails from Stalowa Wola, Poland -- is a five-time individual national champion between cross country and track.
The most decorated athlete in Shorter history, Mudy has dominated the SSAC on the cross country scene, winning three straight SSAC Runner of the Year awards as the conference's championship meet medalist to go along with three NAIA All-America honors.
Mudy closed out her cross country career in 2010 as a back-to-back NAIA national champion. She captured her first NAIA Cross Country national championship in 2009 with a 21-second victory over the defending national champion from Azusa Pacific, Jacky Kipwambok.
But Mudy found a way to top her 2009 accomplishments in the fall of 2010.
After suffering a broken foot in the final 200 meters of the 5,000-meter run final at the 2010 NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championship that previous May -- Mudy won that race for her fourth overall individual national championship and the second at that year's national meet -- Mudy competed all fall while on the mend and took her second straight cross country national championship in November by four seconds over Eastern Oregon's Karlee Coffey despite being far from 100 percent.
Mudy was honored as Shorter's Athlete of the Year this spring and she will have a chance to capture her record sixth individual national title when she hits the track later this week with the Shorter track and field teams at the 2011 NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championship.
Mudy will compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase where she is the two-time defending national champion. After sitting out nearly the entire spring season recovering from another foot injury, Mudy qualified for the event at Shorter's last regular season meet, running a 10:51 to punch her ticket to Marion, Ind., in an event she won in a blistering time of 10:23 last year.
