May 21, 2008

Bronx, N.Y. - As the 2007-08 season begins to wind down, the Fordham University Athletic Department held its 74th annual Block F Awards Dinner at the Villa Barone Manor on April 30th to honor the Fordham University's student-athletes for their accomplishments in the 2007-08 academic year.

Among those honored was rowing's Caroline Gibbons (College Point, N.Y./Dominican Academy), the recipient of the 2008 John Kieran Award. The Kieran Award, presented to the Fordham College senior athlete who has made significant academic and athletic contributions. The award honors the memory of John Kieran, Fordham College Class of 1912, and a famous radio broadcaster, sports editor of the New York Times and a member of Baseball's Hall of Fame.

A four-year member of the women's rowing team, Gibbons is an American Studies major who holds the highest GPA of any senior student-athlete in Fordham College. A collegiate rowing coaches association national scholar-athlete, she is a member of the women's varsity 8, which won both the fall and spring Metropolitan Championships and took sixth at the Atlantic 10 championship. Gibbons also was the coxswain for the lightweight 4 which won a silver medal at the 2008 Atlantic 10 Championship.

Winning the top academic award is nothing new for Fordham women's crew as women's rowers have won the Kieran Award in three of the past four years, with Krista Barney winning in 2005 and Megan Rogers winning in 2004, while Deirdre O'Callaghan was the recipient of the 2003 Benedict T. Harter Award as the top student-athlete in the College of Business Administration.

Gibbons also received an Athlete Academic Achievement Awards which is presented to senior student-athletes who have been selected for outstanding athletic and academic achievement with a 3.5 GPA or better. She also is the 2008 recipient of the Orestes Brownson Award for excelling as an American Studies major and has been elected to Alpha Sigma Nu, the National Honor Society of Students in Jesuit Colleges and University.