June 3, 2010
IOWA CITY – The Big Ten Conference announced on Thursday the 22 student-athletes named Outstanding Sportsmanship Award winners for the 2009-10 academic year, which include Iowa’s A.J. Edds (football) and Laura Cilek (women’s golf). These individuals were chosen from a group of 276 student-athletes honored throughout the academic year who had displayed positive sportsmanship.
Edds, a linebacker from Greenwood, IN, was a second team all-Big Ten selection by the league coaches and by Phil Steele’s College Football. Edds was an academic all-Big Ten honoree for the third year and also earned the team’s Forest Evashevski Scholastic Achievement Award. He was drafted in the fourth round by the Miami Dolphins in this year’s NFL Draft.
Cilek is an Iowa City native and prepped at Iowa City West High School. She averaged 79 strokes on 31 rounds over the course of the fall and spring seasons last year. She fired a low round of 72 multiple times during the year, which is also a career low score for an Iowa golfer. Cilek was named Big Ten Golfer of the Week March 17 after leading Iowa to a sixth place finish at the Jackrabbit Invitational. She was also an academic all-Big Ten honoree.
One member of the each varsity sports team on every campus was chosen by his or her institution as a Sportsmanship Award honoree. From each university’s list, two Outstanding Sportsmanship Award winners were then selected.