Since the early 1960s, the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-8 back then) has awarded medals to each school’s top senior male and female student-athlete. Arizona’s recipients this year are as deserving as any others from the past.
Swimmer Brooks Fail and women’s basketball star Sam Thomas are the UA’s recipients of the 2021-22 Tom Hansen Conference Medal.
Fail capped his UA career in March by posting up three All-American performances at the NCAA championships, giving him 11 overall. The Tucson native holds the school record in the 400-meter individual medley and the 1,650-meter freestyle.
Thomas, who is now playing professionally up the road for the Phoenix Mercury, was the heart and soul of Arizona’s ascension from Pac-12 doormat to NCAA tourney runner-up. From 2017-22 she appeared in 154 games and played 5,125 minutes, both school records, and finished in the top 10 in school history in points, 3-pointers, 3-point shooting percentage, blocks and steals.
Arizona’s Tom Hansen Conference Medal winners in 2020-21 were men’s golfer David Laskin and women’s tennis standout Gitte Heynemans, and in 2019-20 it was men’s basketball player Stone Gettings and women’s track and field athlete Tatum Waggoner.
A full list of past medal winners can be found here.
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