Lake Forest College held its annual Senior Honors Convocation on Friday, a ceremony that included the Nicholas J. Wasylik Senior Athletic Award and Senior Scholar-Athlete Award being presented to basketball player Katie Neher and soccer player Paityn Tabor, respectively.
Neher has been successful both on the court and in the classroom. The team captain was voted 2022-23 Midwest Conference Player of the Year by league coaches and named First Team All-Region by D3hoops.com. She became just the ninth player in program history to surpass 1,000 career points, despite the team playing in just eight games her sophomore season. For her performance in the classroom, the environmental studies major is a two-time Academic All-MWC honoree and was named Academic All-District® by College Sports Communicators as a senior.
On campus Neher has served as a student ambassador with Admissions, a Special Olympics volunteer, president of Athletic Council, a National Girls and Women in Sports Day volunteer, a Relay for Life captain, a volunteer for Earth Day Clean Up, and a Campus Garden Volunteer.
A journalism (self-designed) and Spanish double major, Tabor has a 4.00 career grade point average and earned four varsity letters in women's soccer. A team captain her senior season, she was named Academic All-MWC each year the award was presented, earned the MWC Elite 20 Award twice, and was named College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® in 2022. She is a member of the College's Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Phi Sigma Lota honor societies and has also served on campus as Editor in Chief of the Stentor, an Admissions ambassador, and an active member of Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Tabor plans to pursue a career in sports communication/media. She secured an internship with the MWC and was contracted to provide website content assistance for the league this spring.