Carney makes history for Cardinal

Senior Dylan Carney became the first Stanford athlete to be awarded the Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship yesterday, as the men’s gymnastics team grabbed yet another honor.

“Receiving this award is such an incredible honor, and I’m especially happy that I could bring it to Stanford this year,” said Carney. “Everyone here works so hard to help the student-athletes succeed on the field and in the classroom, and I couldn’t have gotten to this point without the support of my coaches and teammates, the athletic department staff, and my professors.”

The Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship is awarded annually to two NCAA senior athletes, one male and one female, who show exceptional promise and potential both in athletics and also for postgraduate study. The scholarship is worth 21,500 dollars per year and lasts two years with the possibility for renewal.

Carney beat out Kevin Nead of Florida and Jeffery Stepan of St. John’s.

“The other two male finalists, Jeff and Kevin, were really impressive guys so I wasn’t expecting to win,” Carney said to GoStanford.com. “I was completely shocked when I found out I’d won.”

Carney, who will leave Stanford with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biological sciences and a 4.01 GPA, plans to apply his scholarship towards medical school next year.

Gardner honored for academics

Stanford wrestler Tanner Gardner was named as one of the Pacific-10 Conference’s six winter Scholar-Athletes of the year yesterday. The senior took home the wrestling award to cap off a year that included another 125-pound Pac-10 championship and the Most Outstanding Wrestler award at Pac-10s.

Gardner is working on a master’s degree in Sociology, having already completed a bachelor’s in Public Policy. He boasts a 3.73 undergraduate and a 4.0 graduate GPA.

The Pac-10 Scholar-Athlete awards are given to one senior with a cumulative GPA over 3.0 in each Pac-10 sport.

Stanford to host Taekwondo Championships

For the first time ever, Stanford University will be hosting the 33rd National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships.

“It is a huge honor to host such a large and significant event,” according to Tim Ghormley, Taekwondo head coach and Director of the Stanford Martial Arts Program.

Starting today and concluding Saturday, about 400 competitors from all over the nation will be competing at Maples Pavilion. Some will even qualify to try out for a spot on the 2008 U.S. National Collegiate Taekwondo Team, which will represent the United States at the tenth World University Taekwondo Championships later this summer in Belgrade, Serbia.

A third-degree black belt, junior Anh Viet Tran understands just how much is riding on this tournament: “This qualifier is just the beginning of many challenges. Competitors have to win a medal at the championship, just to have a shot at Team Trials. At stake is an amazing opportunity to represent the U.S. internationally.”

This weekend’s event will be the biggest of the year for the team.

“Stanford has been training hard for this,” said senior Julie Padilla. “It’s going to be an intense tournament.”

— Scott Bland