March 9, 2005

Queens, NY - The BIG EAST Conference recently announced the winners of the 2004-05 BIG EAST/Aeropostale Male and Female Scholar-Athlete Award. St. John's University was represented on the men's side by baseball's Jim Wladyka (Rutherford, NJ) and on the women's side by Jaclyn Sanders (Brights Grove, Ontario) of the women's golf team. Each student-athlete will receive $2,000 towards their graduate studies.

Wladyka, a senior finance major, has appeared in 50 games, starting 33, as a member of the St. John's pitching staff. Including this season, he has compiled a 10-10 career record, including a 3-3 mark last season, as he posted a career-best 3.81 earned run average. So far this season, Wladyka has started three games, throwing 18 innings. Over the 18 innings, he has a 2.50 ERA, 16 strikeouts and have held opponents to a .176 batting average. In one of his best starts of his career, he threw eight innings, allowing no runs on only two hits, while striking out six in a 2-0 win over Chicago State last week.

A sports management and English major, Sanders has been the leader of the St. John's women's golf program since its inception before her sophomore season. In her career, she has seven top-five finishes, best on the team over that span, including a third and fourth place finish in two tournaments this past fall. The last two seasons, she has led the team in stroke average and as a sophomore, she won the program's first ever individual title at the Princeton Invitational.

The conference also announced the BIG EAST/Aeropostale Male and Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year. Guy Melamed, a midfielder and defender on the Boston College men's soccer team, and Nicole Lee, a senior on the Georgetown women's track and field/cross country teams, were honored as this year's recipients. Each student-athlete will receive a $4,000 stipend which will be applied to their graduate studies.