SAN ANTONIO (April 30, 2015) -- Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) held its Fourth Annual Big Blue All-Sports Athletic Banquet on April 28. More than 300 student-athletes, parents, faculty, staff and dignitaries attended the event that featured Bexar County Commission for Precinct 2 Tom Calvert as guest speaker and media personality Cleto Rodriguez as master of ceremonies.

Alan E. Baxter, Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs chaired the event.

Student-athletes from the Saints' 14 teams -- volleyball, men's soccer, women's soccer, men's cross-country, women's cross-country, men's basketball, women's basketball, men's track and field, women's track and field, baseball, golf, men's tennis, women's tennis and softball -- received 296 awards.

Among the close to 300 awards were two special recognition trophies given to the team with the highest GPA and the Top Saint Award.

Winner of the Top GPA Award with a team GPA of 3.37 was the 2013-2014 Women's Cross-Country Team consisting of Laura Echeverria, Alexandria De Luna, Ceara O'Donnell, Bonnie Perez, Erica Ramos, Bianca Renteria and Ione Rodriguez.

The Top Saints Awards program was created two years ago to recognize one student-athlete from each team who excelled in his/her sport in academics, athletics and community service. Head coaches of each team nominated the following this year: Volleyball -- Kendall Groff, Men's Soccer -- Marcelo Chapa, Women's Soccer -- Stephanie Diaz, Men's Cross-Country -- Jonathan Yanez, Women's Cross-Country Erica Ramos, Men's Basketball -- De'Quentin Greer, Women's Basketball -- Courtney Bayliss, Men's Track and Field -- Jonathan Yanez, Women's Track and Field -- Erica Ramos, Baseball -- Darius Patton, Golf -- Tommy Xu, Men's Tennis -- Matt Ellis, Women's Tennis -- Summer Almanza and Softball -- Brittany Stone.

Five judges representing all aspects of the university were selected to pick the BIG BLUE Top Saint. Judges included: Saints Cheer Captain Maria Faz; student Albert Huang; Dr. Ezequiel Peña, associate professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies and Research; Randall Garza, Director for the Advising and Retention Services; and John Sanchez, Director of Advancement Services and Annual Giving.

They selected Softball's Brittany Stone as the 2015 BIG BLUE Top Saint. Stone's accomplishments included:

• Volunteer coach for two under-18 high school teams
• Tutor for O'Connor High School players
• Assistant coach for an under-18 gold team that showcases players with college ambitions
• San Antonio Food Bank Volunteer
• Lake-O-Ween Volunteer
• A member of the Conference Regular Season and Tournament Championship team
• NAIA National Tournament Participant
• All-Conference First Team
• Conference Character of the Week Award
• Louisville Slugger/NFCA NAIA All-Region
• CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District
• Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athlete
• Conference Champions of Character
• Multiple Conference Players of the Week
• 4-Time Conference Scholar Athlete
• Her records from this year include:   most games played, best batting average and most walks. She holds the single game record  for most at bats with seven against Houston Victoria this season.

Jay Tope, owner of SA Sports and the Voice of the Saints, returned for the fourth year to announce all of the awards during the program.