Winners of Student-Athlete of the Year, Willard Awards Named

May 14, 2008

Laura King

The Dr. Frank Pettrone Student-Athlete of the Year Award winners were announced last week at the athletics annual awards ceremony. Lacrosse's Laura King won the Female Student-Athlete of the Year award; basketball's Will Thomas won the Male Student-Athlete of the Year award; and baseball player Dan Jaycox won the Aimee Willard commemorative award.

The Student-Athlete of the Year Award winners are selected by fellow student-athletes and are based on the following standards: being a team player on and off the field, demonstrating motivational qualities as well as good sportsmanship and maintaining good academic standing.

Will Thomas

King, a senior, was First-Team All-CAA and a CAA Player of the Week. She finishes her career as one of the school's top goal scorers. She helped lead the lacrosse team to a school record in wins and conference wins this season.

Thomas, a senior, was named First-Team All-CAA and was selected to the CAA All-Defensive Team. Thomas was runner-up for CAA Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. He finished his career among the top 10 all-time in school history in scoring, rebounding and field-goal percentage.

The Aimee Willard commemorative award is presented to the Mason student-athlete who best exemplifies the standards of quality set by Willard: intensity, consistency of purpose, achievement and teamwork.

Dan Jaycox Mason Athletics photos

Willard was a two-sport athlete at Mason, playing soccer and lacrosse. She was a member of Mason’s 1993 women’s soccer team that was the NCAA Division I runner-up, and she was an All-Colonial Athletic Association and regional All-America selection in women’s lacrosse in 1996. Although she was brutally killed near Philadelphia in June 1996, her legacy continues to live on.

Nominees for the award are selected by head coaches and the recipient is selected by Willard's mother, Gail, and the rest of the Willard family.

Jaycox, this year’s Aimee Willard commemorative award winner, is a pitcher from Hatfield, Pa. He started 10 games for the Patriots this year and has a win over a top 25 team. For his career, Jaycox is third all-time in strikeouts, fourth all-time in strikeouts per nine innings, fifth all-time in strikeout-to-walk ratio and 15th all-time in games started.

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