Melanie Tombers, a senior on the Lady Statesmen Swimming & Diving team, captured Delta State Athletics' top honor, the Charles S. Kerg Award, at the 49th annual Green & White Awards recently at the Bologna Performing Arts Center.
Tombers recently claimed the prestigious NCAA Elite 90 Award for women's swimming, which is awarded to the student-athlete who has the highest grade point average, with the most hours attempted, at an NCAA Championship event.
The Dusseldorf, Germany native has claimed 12 All-American honors for top eight finishes at the NCAA Championships. She has also claimed the NSISC Championship in the 400-IM during all four years of her career. Tombers has collected four school records during her career, and also has more top 10 times that any other Lady Statesman in school history.
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After achieving her bachelor's degree in less than four years, Tombers is scheduled to receive her Masters of Business Administration in International Business, in which she has a 3.97 GPA.
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She is a member of the College Swim Coaches of America Scholar Athlete team and has been a peer mentor for first year seminar, has provided swim lessons for the Bolivar Medical Center, has participated in the Pearman Reading Program and was a volunteer timer for high school swim meets.
Established by former Head Coach and Athletic Director Horace McCool, the Charles S. Kerg Award was named after the former Sports Editor at the Delta Democrat Times. At a time when very few media outlets paid attention to Delta State athletics, Charles Kerg followed Delta State religiously, always making sure that Statesmen and Lady Statesmen student-athletes and their programs received the coverage they deserved.
When the award was established, Coach McCool's intent was to see that the award went to the all-around student-athlete who not only excelled on the field but in the classroom and in the community.
One of the most influential supporters in the history of the DSU athletic program, Charles Kerg's dedication serves to this day as not only an inspiration but a model for how dedicated we can be to both our program and the community as a whole.
