BAYLOR ATHLETICS: Gillespie and Davis Named Big 12 2020 Winter Scholar-Athletes of the Year

[Caton, Rachel]

BAYLOR ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS – April 21, 2020

GILLESPIE AND DAVIS NAMED BIG 12 2020 WINTER SCHOLAR-ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
Gillespie earned the honor for men’s basketball, Davis for equestrian.
For more information contact: Rachel Caton, (254) 652-2061, Rachel_Caton at baylor.edu<mailto:Rachel_Caton at baylor.edu>

WACO, Texas– Two Bears were named Big 12 Conference 2020 Winter Scholar-Athletes of the Year, announced Tuesday morning by the conference office after a vote of each sport's respective head coaches. Senior Freddie Gillespie earned the honor for men’s basketball, while junior Rachael Davis took home the title for equestrian.

A former walk-on transfer from Division III Carleton College, Gillespie went on to earn 2020 All-Big 12 second team honors and was named the 2020 Big 12 Most Improved Player. He led the Bears to a 26-4 record, including five weeks ranked as the nation’s No. 1 team, the longest streak by any program since 2015. Gillespie was also named to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team, the Academic All-Big 12 first team and was a CoSIDA Academic All-District 7 honoree. He graduated in August 2019 with a political science degree. He’s the first Baylor men’s basketball player to earn Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

An NCEA First Team All-American and the Big 12 Flat Rider of the Year, Davis went an impressive 11-2 in the flat and 5-5-1 in fences for a 16-7-1 overall record on the 2019-20 season. A four-time Most Outstanding Performer for the Bears, she was also named to the Farnam NCEA All-Academic First Team and Academic All-Big 12 First Team. She is the second Baylor equestrian rider to win the award, following Rachel Van Allen in 2018.

The Big 12 Conference established its Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award in 2012-13. A recipient is named in each conference-sponsored sport. Every Big 12 institution or affiliate nominates one individual per sport with the winners selected by a vote of the league head coaches for the sport, who are not allowed to vote for their own student-athletes. Scholar-Athlete of the Year nominees must be a junior or senior (athletic and academic standing), have a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or higher, participate in at least 20 percent of the team's scheduled contests and have a minimum of one year in residence at the institution.

Baylor’s Big 12 Scholar-Athletes of the Year
Baseball – Kyle Hill, Richard Cunningham, Logan Brown, Doug Ashby
Equestrian – Rachel Van Allen, Rachael Davis
Football – Nick Florence
Men’s Basketball – Freddie Gillespie
Men’s Golf – Colin Kober, Matthew Perrine
Men’s Tennis – Jimmy Bendeck, Patrick Pradella
Men’s XC – Jonathan Tijerina, Blake Niccum
Soccer – Precious Akanyirige, Dana Larsen
Softball – Heather Stearns, Kathy Shelton
Volleyball – Shelly (Fanning) Stafford (twice)
Women’s Golf – Laura Lonardi
Women’s Tennis – Blair Shankle
Women’s XC – Lindsey Bradley

Big 12 Scholar-Athletes of the Year by School
Iowa State-25
Baylor-23
West Virginia-23
Kansas State-19
Oklahoma State-18
Kansas-16
Oklahoma-14
TCU-14
Texas Tech-8
Texas-7
Denver-2
North Dakota State-1
Northern Colorado-1

-baylorbears.com-


__________________________________

Rachel Caton | Associate Sports Information Director
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
O: 254-710-3784 | C: 254-652-2061

[cid:image001.png at 01D5070F.1E7C3CA0]<http://baylorbears.com/>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20200421/89514433/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 11689 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/localmedia/attachments/20200421/89514433/attachment-0001.png>