Chicago, Ill., May 22, 2002 - Penn State sophomore Connie Moore (Chicago, Ill.) earned the Big Ten's Athlete of the Championship honor Wednesday when the conference announced the 2002 Outdoor Track and Field postseason honors. She is the first ever Penn State athlete to earn the honor in track and field.

Moore blazed her way to Big Ten titles in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes on the final day of competition at the 2002 Big Ten Outdoor Championships in Madison, Wisc. She posted season best and NCAA provisional qualifying times of 11.31 in the 100 meters and 23.12 in the 200 after having been sidelined in the weeks leading up to the championship with a hamstring injury. Moore became Penn State's first outdoor conference champion since 2000 and the first two win a pair of titles in the same Big Ten Championship.

"It's a great honor for Connie and well deserved," Penn State head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "She has been an impact player in each of the Big Ten Championships in which she competed and this year she made Big Ten and Penn State history."

Michigan State senior Paul Terek, the conference decathlon and pole vault champion, became just the second student-athlete in League history to earn consecutive Big Ten Men's Track and Field Athlete of the Year laurels and was also tabbed the male Athlete of the Championship. Indiana's Danielle Carruthers, the nation's top-ranked 100-meter hurdler, became the third-consecutive standout in the 100-meter hurdles to garner the Women's Track and Field Athlete of the Year title.

Indiana's Aarick Wilson and Minnesota's Tahesia Harrigan, who finished second to Moore in the 100 and 200, were tabbed as the Men's and Women's Freshmen of the Year, respectively. The mentors of the Big Ten championship-winning squads, Wisconsin's Ed Nuttycombe on the men's side and Michigan's James Henry on the women's side, were awarded the Coach of the Year Honors.