Laramie, Wyo. (Oct. 28, 2017) – One outstanding student-athlete and two dedicated students are the winners of the 2017 Admiral Land Award and Trophy, a great Wyoming homecoming tradition. This year's Award winner is golfer
Ryan Wallen, and the Trophy co-winners are Mary Ginsbach, a student assistant in Athletics Marketing, and Zach Wisniewski, an Athletic Training Aide for UW Sports Medicine. The presentations were made at Saturday's Wyoming-New Mexico Homecoming football game.
The Admiral Land
Award is presented to the
student-athlete who has completed his or her Wyoming competition during the preceding academic year and demonstrated outstanding achievement in intercollegiate competition, exemplary personal conduct on and off the field, and maintained academic standing with satisfactory progress toward a degree. The Admiral Land
Trophy is awarded to the
student (non-collegiate athlete) who has done the most to promote Intercollegiate Athletics at the University during the previous school year.
A native of Blaine, Wash., Wallen was a four-time letter winner for the Cowboy Golf team. As a senior in 2016-17, Wallen had one of the most successful seasons for a Cowboy golfer in recent history, advancing to the NCAA Washington Regional to become the first Cowboy to earn a regional bid since Gabe Maier in 2011. Wallen matched the best finish ever for a Cowboy at a conference championship, tying for third at the 2017 Mountain West Championship with a three-round score of 207 (-9). Another of his eight top-25 finishes came at the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational, where he posted his low round of the year at 65 (-7) to tie for the third-best single-round score in UW history. His three-round total of 206 (-10) at the event earned him a second-place finish as he matched Maier for the second-lowest individual event score in Wyoming history. Wallen's brilliant tournament helped the Cowboys set an all-time program record for lowest team event score at 845 (-19). His stroke average of 72.08 over 36 rounds was a career low and led the team, replacing his previous best of 72.39 in the third-place spot on UW's all-time list. A two-time Academic All-American, Wallen earned his degree in Business Administration this past summer and is currently a graduate assistant for the UW Golf program.
As a member of the UW Athletics social media team,
The Corral, Ginsbach has spent the last three years working to promote the Cowboys and Cowgirls. Whether it is in the office or at events, she continually goes above and beyond to help plan and implement social media projects and is a key contributor to UW Athletics' growth in the area of social media. Her attention to detail and adherence to high standards have made her a natural leader among her co-workers. A native of Hot Springs, S.D., Ginsbach is a senior majoring in Marketing.
A junior majoring in Kinesiology, Wisniewski has been an athletic training aide in the Sports Medicine Department for three years. In that time, he has accumulated over 1500 hours of work experience. His duties include football practice coverage, practice set-up and break down. A strong leader with an impeccable work ethic, Wisniewski's diligence and dedication has earned him the position of Athletic Training Tech team leader. He has been invited to travel on every football road trip this year and always handles his duties professionally. A native of Rifle, Colo., he plans to continue in the field of Athletic Training.
The Admiral Land awards have been a special part of Homecoming since 1953. They were established as a tribute to distinguished UW alumnus Admiral Emory S. Land, class of 1898. Land was a World War II Shipping Administrator and head of the U.S. Maritime Service. At UW, he was a member of the first football team and four of the first five teams in school history.
Following are the previous Admiral Land Award & Trophy Winners:
Year Admiral Land Award Admiral Land Trophy
- Paul Carlin, Track
- George Galuska, Football
- Bob Jingling, Baseball
- Joe Capua, Basketball
- Jim Crawford, Football
- C.T. "Wimp" Hewgley
- Harold Farmer, Football & Track Janice Elmer
- Dick Ballinger, Wrestling Mary Jones
- Jerry Hill, Football Dave Bonner
- Chuck Lamson, Football Gene Bryan
- Bob Hanson, Basketball Judy King
- Mack Balls, Football Joan Selmer
- Flynn Robinson, Basketball John Hursh
- Bob Dinges, Football Babette Numon & Harold Blumenthal
- Mike Gregorio, Cross Country Phil White, Jr.
- Mike Eberle, Basketball Carl Hanson & Jim York
- Bruce Jennings, Skiing Bill Hill
- Stan Dodds, Basketball Debbie Hardy
- Roy Wilson, Basketball Mary Ann Gorman & Don Bogdan
- Gary Fox, Football Kathy Hunt & Larry Bresso
- Staale Engen, Skiing The UW Marching Band
- Steve Cockreham, Football Michelle Green & Bill Yost
- Jody Sloan, Wrestling The UW Pep Band
- Bill Ewing, Baseball Steve Prosinski
- Christine Brown, Women's Athletics Sally Shurmur
- Kathy Merklin, Women's Athletics Randall Luthi
- Ross Houston, Skiing Pete Kuhn
- Geir Kvernmo, Track/Skiing Cynthia Fester
- Charles Bradley, Basketball Bob Ihle
- Phil Davis, Football; Bill Garnett, Basketball Mike Larson & Mark Netzel
- Lynn Stetson, Swimming; Stacy Ward, Skiing Scott Roberts
- Wes Gasner, Wrestling; Mary Shea, Volleyball Bill Lamberty
- Joe Ramunno, Football; Kathy Romsa, Track; Annie Easterbrook
Becky Simning, Skiing
- Mike Hamel, Wrestling; Shari Ahola, Skiing Audrey Waldock
- Jim Walter, Baseball Mike Chisholm
- Mark Miller, Swimming; Ronda Munger, Volleyball Patrick Stolz
- Randy Welniak, Football Amy Dimond & Ron Loghry
- Darcy Cudaback, Volleyball; Kevin Rochlitz
& John Wodny, Cross Country
- Shelly Thacker, Track & Field; Rob Clayton, Swimming Jeff Ketron
- David McCleave, Golf; UW Marching Band
Dave Myers, Wrestling;
Reginald Slater, Basketball
- Scarlett Gustin, Basketball; Wildfire Dance Team
Mike Abbey, Track & Field
- Kiesa Fornstrom, Swimming Noah Buckley, John Carr & Brian Madden
- Amy Burnett, Basketball; Karen Schatz
Ryan Christopherson, Football
- Joe Cummings, Football; Doug Hoffman
Tom Hickenlooper, Wrestling
- Shilo Mathill, Wrestling Kevin Koerwitz
- Brian Lee, Football Dusty Clements
- Mark Winninger, Wrestling Mark Gibbs
- Corey Hamrick, Wrestling Baend Buus
- Joe Hall, Track & Field Abi Gerhard
- Oscar Delgado, Diving Will LeDoux & Shalee McCue
2003 Josh Rollins, Football Mark Krug
2004 Casey Bramlet, Football Keven Gibbs
2005 Shauna Smith, Track, & Scott Usher, Swimming Jason Wasserburger
2006 Bryce Leonhardt, Wrestling David Primus
2007 Kevin Bretting, Diving Mark Bock
2008 Hanna Zavecz, Basketball Eric Whiting & Shelley Heward
2009 Ward Dobbs, Football, & Amanda Lathrop, Soccer Sean Valentine
2010 Emily Huth, Diving Kellen Little
2011 Aubrey Vandiver, Basketball & Chris Prosinski, Football Andy Chapman & Nick Kinney
2012 Joe LeBlanc, Wrestling Ali Galey and Ryan Freeman
2013 Alfonso Hernandez, Wrestling, & Chaundra Sewell, Basketball Katie Stout and Steven Sundberg
2014 Morgan Hartigan-Calhoon, Swimming & Diving Jami Baker
2015 Erin Kirby, Volleyball/Track & Field; Larry Nance, Jr., Basketball; Cory Fields
& Shane Woods, Wrestling
2016 Tanner Harms, Wrestling Cassandra Craddock & Patrick Hall
2017 Ryan Wallen, Golf Mary Ginsbach & Zach Wisniewski
