All-Mountain West Conference Women's Basketball Teams Announced

Utah's Smith named Player of the Year.

Utah's Kim Smith was named Player of the Year.
Women's Basketball Home HEADLINES 2009-10 Mountain West Conference Scholar-Athlete Awards Announced Spring 2010 Academic All-Mountain West Conference Team Announced MWC Women's Basketball Finishes 2009-10 Season Ranked Sixth Nationally in Home Attendance RELATED LINKS • Follow all of the college basketball action at CollegeSports.com • Email this to a friend

March 8, 2004

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Mountain West Conference announced the 2003-04 all-conference team as selected by head coaches. Utah sophomore Kim Smith repeated as MWC Player of the Year, while Newcomer of the Year honors went to UNLV junior RanDee Henry. Wyoming senior Brenda Pickup and UNLV junior Sherry McCracklin shared Defensive Player of the Year honors, and Wyoming head coach Joe Legerski, in his first year with the Cowgirls, was named Coach of the Year.

Smith is the second player to repeat as MWC Player of the Year as UNLV's Linda Fröhlich was a three-time honoree. This year marks the third time a Utah student-athlete earned Player of the Year honors (Amy Ewert was co-Player of the Year in 2001). UNLV garnered individual honors for the fifth straight year and joined Utah as the only teams in the MWC to have earned a Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year since the league was formed.

Three seniors, six juniors, six sophomores and a freshman made up this year's all-conference team. Colorado State, New Mexico, UNLV and Utah each had three selections. Wyoming had two selections and BYU and San Diego State each had one. Three BYU players were named honorable mention, while Air Force and Colorado State each had two honorable mention honorees. San Diego State and Utah each added an honorable mention selection as well.

Kim Smith, a two-time first-team selection, joined four first-time honorees on the MWC first team, including RanDee Henry and Sherry McCracklin (UNLV), Ashley Elliott (Wyoming) and Lindsey Arndt (New Mexico). Three-time MWC all-conference honoree Mandi Moore (New Mexico) joined two-time selection Shona Thorburn (Utah) on the second team along with first-time award winners Sheena Moore (UNLV), Vanessa Espinoza (Colorado State) and Julie Sullivan (BYU). A tie in the balloting accounted for a six-member third team, all of which were first-time all-conference selections: Melissa Dennett and Lindsay Thomas (Colorado State), Melissa Forest (New Mexico), Kelsy Stireman (Utah), Michelle Elliott (San Diego State) and Brenda Pickup (Wyoming).

Legerski led the Cowgirls to a 6-8 MWC finish in his first year as head coach.