Honors for Stout, Pisani, Grable

FAYETTEVILLE – Senior All-American Michelle Stout, junior All-American Jaime Pisani and freshman Katherine Grable all earned post-season honors for Arkansas from the Southeastern Conference at the SEC Championship in Birmingham, Ala., last weekend.

Stout was named co-SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Pisani earned second-team All-SEC honors by finishing second on vault while Grable earned second-team honors after finishing fifth in the all-round. Grable is also the first Razorback to earn SEC All-Freshman honors.

Stout, from Endwell, N.Y., has a 4.0 grade point average in graduate school, working on her master’s in recreation/sports management. She completed her bachelor’s degree requirements last year with a 3.460 GPA in marketing with a minor in management.

"Michelle has been really solid in the classroom and in the gym with her focus," co-head coach Mark Cook says.

She returned to the gym this year after missing last season with a torn Achilles tendon.

Competing in the vault and bars lineup, she has highs of 9.90 on each, and won bars titles against West Virginia and Illinois-Chicago.

At the SEC meet, she had a 9.85 on vault and a 9.825 on bars.

She has been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll, earned scholar-athlete honors from the National Association for Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches for Women and been named to UA’s Academic Honor Roll. The school record-holder with a 9.975 on vault, she has earned All-SEC and All-America honors, and has been a member of the SEC Community Service Team.

Pisani finished second on vault in the SEC meet with a 9.90, which ties the school record in the SEC Championship. She earned second-team All-SEC honors on floor in 2010.

Grable placed fifth in the all-around at the SEC meet to earn second-team honors. Since she was one of the top three freshmen in the all-around, Grable was also named to the SEC All-Freshman team. She had a 39.325 total after scores of 9.875 on vault, 9.75 on bars, 9.85 on beam and 9.85 on floor.

"Jaime and Katherine are outstanding student-athletes and they’ve had a great, consistent year," Cook says. "We look forward to them doing great things the rest of the year."

Stout is the first Razorback to earn the SEC Scholar-Athlete award.

Pisani and Grable run Arkansas’ All-SEC selections to seven. This is Pisani’s second honor and the first for Grable, who is the fifth different Razorback to earn all-conference honors.

The others were Melissa Leigh on bars in 2004, Casey Jo Magee on beam and Stout on vault in 2009, and Magee in the all-around and Pisani on floor in 2010.

The Razorbacks have earned a spot in an NCAA Regional for the eighth straight season and are competing in the North Central Regional in Denver on April 2 at 5 p.m.

Arkansas is the No. 2 seed in the region behind No. 1 Florida. The other seeds are No. 3 Boise State, No. 4 Denver, No. 5 Arizona and No. 6 Brigham Young.

The top two teams from each of the six regions advance to the NCAA Championship April 15-17 in Cleveland.

Arkansas has advanced to the NCAA Championship four times, including each of the last three years.