BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Track and field athletes Matt Maloney and Phoebe Wright have been nominated by the University of Tennessee for the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship.
     The H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship has been presented by the Southeastern Conference since 1986 to the league's top male and female scholar-athletes.  
     The Southeastern Conference will name the 2010 recipients of the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Post-Graduate Scholarship on April 6 in conjunction with National Student-Athlete Day.
     Maloney, a native of Barrington, R.I., and a graduate of LaSalle Academy, has a 3.43 grade point average, majoring in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  He is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll (2010 SEC Academic Honor Roll to be released later in spring) and a three-time VolScholar (3.0 grade point average or better).  
     He earned All-America honors in the javelin in 2007 and has twice finished as the SEC runner-up.  He also ranks among the top-10 in school history in the hammer throw and the javelin.   
     Maloney helped the Vols win the 2007 SEC outdoor track & field championship.  He spent his freshman season at the University of Oregon before transferring to Tennessee.  A first-team All-American at Oregon, he was seventh on the Ducks' all-time list in the javelin.
      Maloney has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, constructing homes for the needy, as well as visiting critically ill patients at area hospitals.  He has also volunteered at local sports camps, working with
area youth.
     Wright, a native of Signal Mountain, Tenn., and product of Red Bank High School, has a 3.96 grade point average, with a double major in Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  She is a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll (Academic Honor Roll announced later in spring) and has earned Thornton Center (UT athletics) Honor Roll status in each
semester.  
     In 2009, she was named to the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America first-team and has earned All-District honors twice.  She made the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Team from 2007 to 2009 and will graduate Summa Cum Laude this fall.
     Wright is a three-time NCAA distance medley relay champion (2008, 2009, 2010), won the 800 meters at NCAA Indoors in 2010 and was runner up in the 800 at the 2009 NCAA Indoor meet.  She is an eight-time All-American (DMR, 800 meters and 4×400 meter relay) and a six-time SEC champion (three times in the 800 meters and three times in the DMR).  She has scored 11 times in SEC Championship events and was named the 2010 SEC Indoor Women's Runner of the Year.
     She is the world record-holder in the indoor DMR and the outdoor 4×1500 meters, and owns the American record in the 4×800 as well as an SEC meet record in the DMR.  She owns five UT records on relay teams and currently ranks second indoors and third outdoors on the school's all-time 800 meter lists. Her top outdoor mark came last summer after she earned a bronze medal at the USA Championships and pursued a berth on the U.S. team for the IAAF World Championships in Berlin.
     Wright has been active in the Knoxville community, visiting children at local hospitals, volunteering at local track & field meets, speaking to local youth church groups and participating in "Teams for Toys," purchasing, wrapping and giving Christmas gifts to area needy children.
     She organized the Red Bank High School Fun Run to raise over $1,000 for the school's track and cross country teams, volunteers with the Chattanooga River Rescue to clean up rivers and with the Ecosystem Ecology Lab to help graduate students do field research.

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