Courtesy: Tennessee Athletics
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Southeastern Conference announced each of its 14 member institutions’ 2019-20 Roy F. Kramer Athletes of the Year Award nominees Monday, with Erika Brown (swimming and diving) and Carey McLeod (track & field) earning nominations for Tennessee.
The SEC Athletes of the Year Awards were first presented in 1976 for men and 1984 for women. The award was renamed the Roy F. Kramer Athletes of the Year in 2004 to honor the former Commissioner who served the conference from 1990-2002.
Each institution nominates one male and one female student-athlete for the award.
Brown, the American Record holder in the 100 butterfly, led the Lady Vols to their first-ever SEC title in 2020, while winning seven medals – six gold and one silver – at the SEC Championships. Her six gold medals ran her career gold medal count to 18, giving her 23 medals in all. The Charlotte, N.C., native was named the SEC Female Swimmer of the Year for the second-straight year.
A Honda Award finalist, Brown broke the American Record in the 100 fly at SECs with a time of 49.38 and capped the year with eight All-America certificates, giving her 21 career All-America honors.
McLeod was named the 2020 SEC Field Athlete of the Year and scored a team-high 18 points for the Vols in his SEC Indoor Championship debut — winning gold in the long jump and silver in the triple jump. With a school-record leap of 8.19 meters, he became UT’s first long jump conference champion since 1995.
A finalist for USTFCCCA National Men’s Field Athlete of the Year, McLeod ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the NCAA this season in the long jump (8.19m) and triple jump (16.68m), respectively. Those marks also sat No. 4 and No. 19 on the 2020 world leaderboard.
The Male and Female Athletes of the Year will be announced on Wednesday, June 17.
Erika deserves this award.