Amatuer Athlete of 2009 - runner Amy Palmiero Winters nominated (Read 525 times)

Nominees for the 80th annual Sullivan Award include a Heisman Trophy winner and athletes who won titles in sports from NCAA basketball to track and field world championships.

The AAU Sullivan Award honors the outstanding amateur athlete in the USA. Presented annually since 1930, the Sullivan also is based on leadership, character, sportsmanship and the ideals of amateurism.

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The winner will be announced April 14 in New York. The 14 nominees for 2009:

•Angela Bizzarri won the 2009 NCAA cross country national title as a senior at Illinois. The runner from Mason, Ohio, was also the NCAA champion in the 5,000 meters and placed third in the U.S. championships.

•South Florida soccer player Zak Boggs received the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup Award, given to an athlete who has made the greatest positive influence on others. Boggs of Vienna, W.Va., serves as a tutor and volunteers at a children's hospital.

•Boxer Duran Caferro Jr. won a national title in June and was named Native American Role Model of the Year for Montana. Caferro coaches and trains young boxers for the Helena Eagles Boxing Club.

•Connecticut basketball player Tina Charles was nominated for her contributions to the Huskies' perfect season and national title in 2009. Charles of Jamaica, N.Y., was most outstanding player of the 2009 Final Four and an All-American as a junior.

•Three-time OlympianTroy Dumais was named the 2009 USA Diving athlete of the year. Dumais of Austin won two silver medals in last year's world championships.

•Armanti Edwards, an All-America quarterback at Appalachian State, passed for 3,291 yards last season. Edwards won the Walter Payton Award as the top offensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision.

•Erin Hamlin of Remsen, N.Y., won a world championship in women's luge, breaking Germany's 16-year winning streak.

•Volleyball player Megan Hodge led Penn State to its third consecutive NCAA title. The four-time All-American from Durham, N.C., was selected AVCA Division I national player of the year.

•Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram set the Alabama single-season rushing record with 1,658 yards in leading the Crimson Tide to the national title.

•Clint Moore of Greensboro, N.C.,was named all-Patriot League first team last year after a season in which he batted .395 with 18 doubles and 11 home runs for Army. He was one of 15 semifinalists for the Brooks Wallace Award given to the nation's top shortstop.

•Amy Palmiero-Winters of Hicksville, N.Y., set world records for amputee women at several distances as an ultra-marathoner. She won the Arizona Road Racers 24-hours Run to the Future (130.4 miles), beating all able-bodied entrants. She also completed the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon and Ironman Malaysia.

•Sanya Richards, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who lives in Austin, won the 2009 U.S. and world titles at 400 meters. In the World Athletics Final, she was first in the 400 and second in the 200.

•Jennifer Song became the first woman in 21 years to win two U.S. Golf Association Championships in the same season. Song, who plays for Southern California, won the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links and the U.S. Women's Amateur.

•Rebecca Soni won gold in the 100-meter breaststroke and silver in the 50 breaststroke in the world championships. While competing at Southern California, she became the first woman to win the NCAA title in the 200 breaststroke four consecutive times.