ISU athletes rack up Big 12 scholarships

For the third consecutive year, two ISU players have received Big 12 Conference postgraduate scholarships.

Football defensive back Cody Stafford and tennis player Tara Goedjen received two of the 24 scholarships, awarded to players who have exhausted their eligibility, played in two seasons, and earned at least a 3.50 GPA.

Stafford was honored three times for academics by the Iowa State Athletics Council as an exercise and sport science major.

Goedjen was twice named Academic All-Big 12 and was voted the tennis team’s hardest worker each of her four seasons. Goedjen will graduate in August with a degree in English.

Stafford and Goedjen are the eighth and ninth ISU athletes to receive the Big 12 honor, tying Nebraska for the highest total since the program began.

Past winners include swimmers Catherine Voorhees and Erin Endres in 2002, men’s basketball player Paul Shirley and women’s track and field athlete Gina Curtis (Rickert) in 2001, and women’s basketball player Jayme Olson and women’s gymnast Kim Mazza in 1998.

— Lucas Grundmeier

Scholarships honor former ISU player

Officials of the Iowa Games named two Iowa high school juniors as the recipients of the Brian Pearson Memorial Scholarship Wednesday.

Pearson, who played basketball for Iowa State from 1988—1992, died of brain cancer in 1997. The Iowa Games began awarding the scholarships annually to one male and one female Iowa Games athlete in 1998 on the basis of their character and Iowa Games participation, according to the organization’s Web site.

Sara Best of Audubon and Trent Miner of Perry received this year’s awards.

Iowa Games executive director Jim Hallihan was an assistant coach at Iowa State under Johnny Orr during Pearson’s career.

— Lucas Grundmeier