DAY, HELWICK AWARDED POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS

Both were named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America on Tuesday

June 27, 2007

Tennessee seniors Jeff Day and Chris Helwick were named recipients of postgraduate scholarships worth $7,500 by the NCAA on Wednesday.

Helwick, a Greeley, Colo. native, was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America first team on Tuesday. He finished his undergraduate career with a 3.72 GPA in economics. The team captain placed sixth in the decathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Championships to bring home his seventh All-America certificate on the track. Last weekend, he finished seventh in the decathlon at the USA Outdoor Championships and earned a spot on Team USA for the USA vs. Germany Decathlon Championships to be held later this summer. Helwick was named to the 2006 USTFCCCA All-Academic team and is a three-time SEC Honor Roll selection.

Day, from Springfield, Va., finished his collegiate career with a 3.90 GPA in sport management and was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America third team. He ran the opening leg on Tennessee's SEC champion and school record-breaking distance medley relay teams and finished third in the championship section of the steeplechase at the Penn Relays to qualify for the Mideast Regional for the fourth straight year. Day was awarded co-Most Valuable Runner at the team's cross country banquet. He was named to the 2006 USTFCCCA All-Academic team and is a three-time SEC Honor Roll selection.

The NCAA awarded 58 postgraduate scholarships, 29 to males and 29 to females, in all three NCAA divisions who participated in a spring sport this academic year. In addition to the spring sport honorees, the NCAA also awards 116 postgraduate scholarships to student-athletes participating in fall and winter sports in which the NCAA conducts championships or participates in as an emerging sport, for a total of 174 postgraduate scholarships annually.

The NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship was created in 1964 to promote and encourage postgraduate education by rewarding the Association's most accomplished student-athletes through their participation in NCAA championship and/or emerging sports. Athletics and academic achievements, as well as campus involvement, community service, volunteer activities and demonstrated leadership, are evaluated. In maintaining the highest standards in the selection process, the program aims to reward individuals whose dedication and effort are reflective of those characteristics necessary to succeed and thrive through postgraduate study in an accredited graduate degree program.

To qualify for an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, a student-athlete must have an overall grade-point average of 3.200 on a 4.000 scale or its equivalent and must have performed with distinction as a member of the varsity team in the sport in which the student-athlete was nominated. The student-athlete also must intend to continue academic work beyond the baccalaureate degree as a full-time or part-time graduate student.