May 5, 2008

CANYON, Texas - Three outstanding West Texas A&M senior student athletes were honored for their outstanding athletics accomplishments, solid academic record and exemplary citizenship this weekend as they earned the coveted President's Award during the athletics department's annual sports banquet. WTAMU President J. Patrick O'Brien bestowed the honor on two young ladies, Whitney Agee (Equestiran) and Jisel Bailon (Women's cross country), while Tyler Cooper was the male recipient of the award.

From the time she was a freshman, Agee has shown she had championship abilities. She was fourth in Reining and fifth in horsemanship at the NCAA Equestrian National Championship in 2005. The following year she was a qualifier for the National Championship and in 2007 she was the Western Regional Reserve Champion in Reining and a qualifier in Open Horsemanship. Agee was fourth in Reining at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association National Championship. This year she was the Western Regional Champion and the Western Semi-Finals Reserve Champion in Reining and a qualifier in Open Horsemanship.

Agee has participated in the Horsemen's Association, Pre-Vet Club, Agricultural Ambassadors, the National Champion Horse Judging Team, Alpha Zeta and Alpha Chi. She is an Animal Science major with a Pre-Vet option with an outstanding GPA of 3.985. Whitney has been a Scholar-Athlete of the Year three times, on the Dean's List one semester and the President's List seven semesters.

Jisel Bailon

Bailon is a first-generation college student, who has been an outstanding cross country runner for WT from 2004-2007. She was All-Lone Star Conference in 2004 and 2005, and helped lead her team to a second place finish in 2005 and third place last year. Bailon has participated in the NCAA South Central Regional Meets the last four years - her best finish was 24th in 2005, leading her team to a third place finish. She was WT's Most Valuable Runner in 2004 and 2006.

She has been a member of Phi Beta Sigma (National Honor Society), Beta Beta Beta (Biology National Honor Society), Mortar Board (Senior Honor Society, the McNair Scholarship Program, and the Pre-Healthcare Club.

Academically, Bailon has a 3.58 GPA - majoring in Biology/Chemistry Pre-Med. She was on the President's List in 2005 and 2006 and was also a Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Additionaly, Bailon also received recognition from the LSC in 2005 by being named to the All-Academic team, as well from the U.S. Track & Field/ Cross Country Coaches Association to their Division II All-Academic team. She was also an Arthur Ashe, Jr. Second Team Athlete in 2006-2007. In the fall of 2007 she received a National Smart grant and a Harrington Honor Scholarship in 2007-2008, and was first at WTAMU's 14th Annual research Conference this spring.

Tyler Cooper

In four years of playing for WT and his father, Cooper led the Buffaloes to a 78-41 record and the LSC Championship in 2005-2006 and three South Central regional quarterfinals.

Cooper carries 4.0 grade point average in the classroom and has been named the LSC All-Academic Player of the Year the past three seasons. He was even named to the LSC All-Academic Team in 2004-05 - the lone freshman to receive that honor. For the past three seasons, he was named All-Academic All-District by ESPN The Magazine/ CoSIDA and this year he was named second team All-Academic All-American by the same organization.

Recently, Cooper was one of only 58 NCAA student-athletes nationally to receive an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship. The recipients receive a one-time, nonrenewable grant of $7,500. The scholarship was created in 1964 (34 years ago. By the way, that's the uniform number Tyler wore) to promote and encourage post-graduate education by rewarding the NCAA's most accomplished student-athletes.

Cooper has been accepted to Medical School at Texas Tech University. Tyler has also been very instrumental in his leadership role in the Student-Athlete Advisory Council

In addition to his outstanding academic record and as a citizen also a very good basketball player, as he was selected Honorable Mention the last two years on the All-LSC South Division Team, while leading the team in rebounding as a senior.