The University of Texas came out on top—again—at the annual meeting for the Texas Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (TACSM) last week. Twenty-seven undergraduate teams traveled from across the state seeking to dethrone Texas in the 8th Annual Student Bowl competition. Two teams from UT’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Education (KHE), coached for the third year by Lecturer Michelle Harrison, wanted to establish Texas as the first back-to-back winner in the competition. Mission accomplished.
Not only did KHE students Andrew Hedges, Tyler Jaffee, and Daniel Murray win the championship for the 4th time for Texas, but Kelsy Osterman, Abigail Schacheral, and Cristobal Saenz made Texas the first team to ever capture first and second place. The first-place winners set a scoring record and Murray became the first individual to play on two winning teams.
Going into the final round of the jeopardy-type competition, the Texas White and Texas Orange teams stood at 14,200 and 12,200 points, respectively, while third place Texas Woman’s University had 8,200 points. Putting almost all of their chips on the table, both UT teams answered the final question correctly, bringing the trophy back to Austin and sending the first-place team to the national ACSM Student Bowl competition in Denver in late May. Texas will square off against 10 other regional chapter victors.
Other awards
Phil Stanforth, TX ACSM Service Award
Senior Lecturer
Department of Kinesiology and Health Education
Executive Director of the FIT Institute of Texas
The award recognizes those TACSM members who have distinguished themselves through significant service to TACSM during their time as members. 11th person to receive the award and the second UT person (John Ivy won in 2013)
Student Awards
2nd place Ph.D. manuscript competition Evan Pasha, Ph.D. candidate (Ex. Sci)
4th place Ph.D. manuscript competition Ting-Heng Chou, Ph.D. candidate (Ex. Sci)
UT TACSM Student of the Year, Kelsy Osterman
