April 2, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
To conclude the 2005-06 season the Illinois State swimming and diving team held its annual banquet. The banquet took place at the Double Tree Hotel in Bloomington at 10 am on Saturday, April 2. The conference room was full of members from the team, family and friends and people who played a significant role for the team this season. The morning presentation was full of humor and sentiment as the `Birds wrapped up another season.
Head coach Steve Paska was pleased with the way the morning turned out.
"Today was a culmination of a terrific season," said Paska. "All of these girls trained all year and they deserve this. The girls that won the awards today were defiantly deserving. The process of deciding was hard because a lot of members of the team could have received these awards."
There were eight awards distributed along with 25 recognitions for being a member of AFNI Honor Roll. The Scholastic Award was the first honor of the day and was given out to five student-athletes that had outstanding grade achievements. Tracy Deyell, Katie Finan, Kaitlin Schneider, Brittany Armstrong and Jennifer Klicka were all honored with this award.
The Spirit Award was next and was received by Monique Witkowski and Kristen DeKeyrel for their continuous effort in keeping the team motivated in all aspects. Allison Fishbein and Jessica Santi earned Most Improved Award for the season because of their non-stop effort to keep growing as swimmers.
Newcomer of the Year, went to Rebecca Layman, for all of her success in the water and out. Most Valuable Diver, went to Emily Hirt, for her continual success on the boards and being a qualifier for the NCAA Zones this season. Tracy Deyell was awarded with Most Valuable Swimmer because of her strength and determination to get back in the water and have a great season after starting out with an injury.
Katie Finan was honored with the Rebecca Wade Award. The award is given to a swimmer who shows all around characteristics of a student athlete. Casey McKittrick, earned the first annual Dede Woytowych Scholarship Fund for the 2006-07 year.
Along with the annual awards handed out at the banquet, the senior captains continued with a tradition know as the Paper Plate Award. Humor and inside jokes lead the captains to hand out these awards to several teammates who developed and shared memories with them. Along with these awards senior, Armstrong, made a video compiled of season memories and competitions performed by the entire team.
Three team captains were named to take the reins for the 2006-07 season. Jennifer Klicka, Casey McKittrick and Lisa Hanrahan were chosen by their fellow teammates to assume the leadership role in the upcoming season. Coach Paska feels that the three upcoming captains have what it takes to be successful leaders.
"The girls voted them in," said Paska. "All three of these young ladies share characteristics and values of being fine team captains. They have had fantastic careers and will represent their team well for the 2006-07 season."
