2015 ‘M’ Club Dean Smith Award Winners Announced
The University of Maine has named women’s basketball player Liz Wood and track and field athlete Wilson Adams the recipients of the 2015 “M” Club Dean Smith Award. The award is presented annually to the top male and female student-athletes with outstanding academic and athletic achievement along with citizenship and community service.
Adams of Barrington, Rhode Island is a bioengineering major with a minor in physics who plans to pursue graduate studies. His research has included working in the development of specialized equipment for automated handling of larval zebrafish and on a project to design and produce biodegradable lobster shell golf balls.
Adams, captain of the track and field team, has set multiple school records while at UMaine. He is a four-time America East champion in the weight throw and hammer, winning both events in 2012 and 2014. He has been named the UMaine and America East student-athlete of the week multiple times and has been selected to the America East All-Conference and IC4A All-Eastern teams.
Wood of Catlett, Virginia is a junior in the Honors College majoring in biology with a pre-med concentration and a minor in chemistry. She was named the 2013 America East Women’s Basketball Student-Athlete of the Year and is a two-time selection to the America East Commissioner’s Honor Roll. She received the Second Year Academic Book Award in the school of Biology and Ecology in 2013 and is a two-time finalist for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) All-State Good Works Team for her significant impact in the community, in the classroom and on the court. This past summer, she also participated in an internship at Colorado State University working in a laboratory on a NASA-funded project in cancer biology.
Wood, who is co-captain of the women’s basketball team, recently became the 18th women’s basketball student-athlete in school history to record 1,000 points. She was named the America East preseason Player of the Year and earned a spot on the preseason All-Conference list.
In addition, the University of Maine Athletic Department named its seventh annual “Team Maine” representing the top sophomore, junior or senior achieving the highest grade point average in 2014.
More information, including a full list of Team Maine student-athletes, is online.