SMU guard Alisha Filmore was the only senior on the 2013 Conference USA regular-season champion Mustangs. (Courtesy of Facebook)
At SMU’s annual student-athlete banquet, a banquet that honors the 17 sports programs at SMU for their athletic and academic achievements, senior women’s basketball player Alisha Filmore and senior men’s swimmer Mindaugas Sadauskas were named Student Athletes of the Year.
On the court, Filmore was a leader and a presence in the locker room.
Filmore, who averaged 12.5 points per game, became the 20th player in program history to score 1,000 points, finishing with 1,070 in her career.
The captain of the women’s team also led her team to a Conference USA regular-season championship and into postseason play.
In addition to being named to the All-Conference USA second-team, Filmore was honored at the Women’s Basketball Banquet with the M Award for exemplifying leadership, sportsmanship and effort both on and off the court.
Sadauskas, who twice-recovered from a broken hand, was an NCAA All-American and named the Conference USA Swimmer of the Year.
In his final year at SMU, Sadauskas became a three-time school record holder and a four-time Conference USA record holder.
At the NCAA Championships, Sadauskas had three top 20 finishes, finishing 13th in the 400 free relay, 17th in the 200 free relay and 18th in the 100 free.
Academically, Sadauskas maintains a 3.05 grade-point average while majoring in markets and cultures and minoring in applied physiology.
In addition to these two seniors, other SMU student athletes were also honored at the banquet.
Women’s Basketball’s Keena Mays and men’s golf’s Bryson Dechambeau were named the top newcomers at SMU.
Mays, who averaged 19.3 points per game in her first year on the hilltop after transferring, was named the Conference USA player of the year and was selected first-team all C-USA.
Dechambeau, a freshman, is ranked No. 4 overall amongst freshman and ranks in the top 40 overall. He also shot a 6-under at the Conference USA Championships, good enough for a second-place finish.
Mays and Dechambeau were the only two players from their respective teams to be honored at the banquet.
Blake McJunkin, Derrick Thompson and Stephon Sanders were the three football players to win awards at the annual banquet.
McJunkin received the FCA Faithful Service Award, while Thompson received the Scholar Baller Academic Momentum Award and Sanders earned the Mustang Character Award.
Courtney Manning, a senior on the women’s volleyball team, received the Scholar Baller Academic Momentum Award along with Thompson.
Rowing’s Emily Carstens, men’s soccer’s Will Smith and Ben Hill, women’s soccer’s Lauryn Bodden, Kenzie Scovill and Courtney Smith, and men’s swimmers Fernando Lara and Nicolai Hansen were the other student-athletes to receive various awards at the banquet.
Along with all of the individual accolades that were honored at the banquet, team awards were also handed out.
The women’s cross country team (3.59) and the men’s tennis team (3.33) finished with the highest team GPAs, while the women’s basketball team had the most improved GPA.
