Sports briefs

Athletes receive Alumni Awards for ExcellenceEach year, the top 10 percent of Idaho’s senior class receives the Alumni Awards for Excellence honor. For the 2012-13 year, five Vandal student-athletes accepted the award.
Volleyball player Janelle Chow, swimmer Kelsie Saxe and soccer players Jill Flockhart, Lauren Layton and Chelsea Small were recognized this year. Approximately 40 students “who have achieved outstanding academic success and have demonstrated career and professional preparation; campus and community leadership and involvement” are given the award annually at UI.
Thus far, this year’s five student-athletes are the most to be honored in a single year.

Swimming and diving heads to Winter Nationals
Five Idaho swimmers head into rough waters this weekend as they compete in the U.S. Winter National Championships Thursday to Saturday at Austin, Texas.
Sophomore Rachel Millet will compete in a full four events with the 200-yard IM, 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. Senior Kelsie Saxe will compete in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke, while sophomore Laura Griffing is entered in the 100-yard breaststroke. Freshman Janelle Stacy (100-yard backstroke) and Jamie Sterbis (200-yard butterfly) will also compete this weekend.
Nine U.S. Olympic team members (Haley Anderson, Missy Franklin, Jessica Hardy, Kathleen Hersey, Katie Ledecky, Christine Magnuson, Lia Neal, Kim Vandenberg and Amanda Weir) and several of the best swimmers from across the nation will challenge the Vandals at the meet.
Apple Cup stays on the Palouse
Washington State (3-9) beat Washington (7-5) on Nov. 23, at home in the annual battle between the state and conference rivals.
The 31-28 overtime victory came on a game-winning 27-yard field goal by junior Andrew Furney after Washington quarterback Keith Price threw an interception on the first possession. The Cougars overcame an 18-point deficit in the fourth quarter to seize the victory in overtime.
It was Washington State’s first victory over Washington since its double overtime victory in 2008.
Akbar earns another WAC honor
Men’s tennis player Abid Akbar earned his second WAC Player of the Month this season Thursday, when he was announced the player of the month for November. The senior paired up with teammate Marius Cirstea at the National Indoor Collegiate Championships held in Flushing Meadows, New York, last month. The duo fell in the first round to a pairing from Cal but surprised teams from USC and Columbia in the next two rounds to win the consolation draw. This was the second consecutive year that an Idaho duo made the trip to the prestigious fall tournament.
“It would be amazing if two people could get this award, it was a great accomplishment for both of them, but I’m really happy for Abid to get this award for the second time this year,” coach Jeff Beaman said.
Akbar won the same award in October.
Vandals will continue to compete in events Friday and Saturday. The meet consists of some of the nation’s best swimmers — including a number of former Olympians.
Small named an Academic All-American
Senior forward Chelsea Small has continued to exhibit excellence in the classroom, and her accomplishments were recognized when the program’s all-time leading scorer earned Capital One Academic All-American honors for the second time of her career. Small was named to the Academic All-America Second team, thanks to votes from the College Sports Information Directors of America. Small and 2010 graduate Allix Potratz-Lee are the only two Vandals to have ever earned Academic All-America honors multiple times.
“There are 33 women’s soccer players who get this accolade out of close to 10,000 at the Division I level,” Idaho head soccer coach Peter Showler said. “That speaks for itself. I can’t say enough about her commitment to excellence in everything she does.”

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