Vanderbilt Names Athletes of the Year 6/20/02

Basketball star Chantelle Anderson has been named Vanderbilt’s female “Athlete of the Year” while tennis All-American Bobby Reynolds and golf All-American Brandt Snedeker were selected to share the men’s “Athlete of the Year” honor for 2001-02.

Anderson and Snedeker are juniors while Reynolds is just a sophomore.

Anderson became widely recognized as one of the nation’s best players in leading the Commodores to a 30-7 record, an SEC Tournament title, VU’s 15th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, its fifth trip to the Elite Eight, and a No. 4 final national ranking.

She earned numerous post-season honors including Kodak All-American, Associated Press All-American, SEC Player of the Year, NCAA Midwest Regional Most Outstanding Player, All-SEC, AP All-SEC First Team selection, and SEC All- Tournament Team honors.

Anderson, a Vancouver, Wash., native, was also a finalist for the Wade Trophy, the Naismith Basketball Award and the Honda Award. ESPN The Magazine named her the Best Center in the Nation. She is the first Commodore to win the team MVP award three times.

She led the team in scoring with a 20.7 average and was second in rebounding with 6.8 a game. She led the SEC for the second consecutive season in field goal percentage, shooting 64.7 percent from the field (295-456), second in the nation.

Chantelle became only the second Commodore ever to total 2,000 career points and currently totals 2,023, which is second on the school’s all-time scoring list. She scored in double figures in all but one game this season and totaled 20 or more points 20 times and at least 30 points three times.

Bobby Reynolds, an Acworth, Ga. product, earned 2002 ITA All-America honors in singles, while leading his team to its second consecutive trip to the second round of the NCAA Championships. He joins former Commodore Chris Groer as the only men’s tennis All-Americans in the program’s history.

Reynolds was all-SEC in singles, a Top 16 seed for the 2002 NCAA Singles Championships and had a final ITA singles ranking of No. 15, which is the highest ranking by a Commodore in six years His final ITA Southeast Region singles ranking was fifth.

Reynolds compiled a 30-13 singles record, just the second player in school history to reach 30 wins in a season.

He was one of only two players in the nation to beat both NCAA Champion Matias Boeker of Georgia and NCAA runner-up Jesse Witten of Kentucky this season. Reynolds had nine wins against Top 50 ranked players.

The sophomore was also a 2002 all-SEC doubles pick with a 16-13 doubles record. He qualified for the 2002 NCAA doubles championships (teamed with Lewis Smith) and had a final ITA doubles ranking of No. 32 (with Lewis Smith). Their final ITA Southeast Region doubles ranking was No. 7.

Snedeker was named second-team All-America by the Golf Coaches Association of America.

He was Vanderbilt's top golfer this past season, posting a 71.3 stroke average in 42 rounds of play. After finishing as the top individual and tied for third overall at the NCAA East Regional, he became just the second Commodore men's player ever to advance to the NCAA Championship. He finished the NCAA’s tied for 23rd place with an even-par score of 284.

The graduate of Nashville's Montgomery Bell Academy posted nine Top10 and seven Top 6 finishes in his 14 tournaments this past season. He was named first-team all-SEC and his tie for 12th at the SEC Championship helped lead the Commodores to a fourth-place tie at the league tournament.

This summer, Snedeker will join a select group of collegiate golfers chosen to represent the United States in the 2002 USA vs. Japan Collegiate Golf Championship. Eight men and four women collegiate golfers from across the U.S. will compete against their counterparts from Japan, July 17-19 at The Glen Club in Glenview, Ill.