For the first-time in the five-year history of the Sierra Nevada Media Group Athlete of the Year awards, the two winners hail from the same school.
Douglas High seniors Tim Rudnick and Jessica Waggoner were named the male and female athletes of the year, respectively, after stellar 2009 campaigns.
The athletes were chosen from a pool of nominees selected by the sports staffs at the Sierra Nevada Media Group publications. Sierra Nevada Media Group consists of seven newspapers and associated Web sites, including the Nevada Appeal, Northern Nevada Business Weekly, North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, Lahontan Valley News, Sierra Sun, Tahoe Daily Tribune, and The Record-Courier. The group also owns and operates tahoe.com and reno.com, as well as specialty publications and commercial print divisions. Swift Communications is the parent company of Sierra Nevada Media Group, based in Carson City.
Rudnick came in ahead of Fallon's Trent de Braga and Sierra Lutheran's Wade Meddles in order, while Waggoner finished ahead of Carson's Brandi Vega and Incline's Katelyn Wright
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Other nominees included Chris Klug (South Tahoe), Matt Rutledge (Carson), James Laughlin (North Tahoe), Jordan Cronin (Incline), Isabel Concha-Foley (Whittell), Brittany Barcelos (South Tahoe), Kate Pinder (Fallon), Kelsey Smith (South Tahoe), Derek Holmgren (South Tahoe), Roberto Concha-Foley (Whittell) and Justin Vosburgh (Truckee).
Rudnick was a first-team All-Northern 4A selection at quarterback during football season. He broke school single-season records for completions (157), passing yardage (2,550) and passing touchdowns (23). His 2,550 yards ranked fourth in the NIAA State Record Books. He also ran for 81 yards and four touchdowns. For his career he ranks second in the school record books for passing yards (3,237), second in completions (199) and second in passing touchdowns (31), even though he only started at the varsity level for a season and a half.
In basketball he was a second-team All-Sierra League honoree. He was second on the team in scoring behind James McLaughlin with 177 points (6.5 ppg) and second in 3-pointers with 12.
He was also a two-time first-team All-Sierra League shortstop and three-year starter in baseball.
He was second on the team in RBIs this year with 35 in helping lead Douglas to its first regional title in 20 years and served as the team's primary closer and long-relief pitcher, recording a 3-0 record on the mound with one save and 33 strikeouts in just nine appearances, all in relief.
In three seasons at the plate he had 18 doubles, five triples, two home runs and 75 RBIs.
Waggoner was a four-year varsity letter winner in basketball. The 6-foot-1 center was named first-team all-league for the third straight season this past season as she helped Douglas post a 17-13 record. Her 1,524 career points are believed to be the most by any female player in Douglas history and rank No. 5 all-time among girls in Nevada, according to the NIAA state record book. She averaged 17 points and was the Tigers' MVP this season and was the Sierra League's co-Player of the Year in 2007-08.
She was a three-year varsity player in volleyball and received first-team all-league honors as a sophomore and senior. The senior middle blocker contributed a team-high 297 blocks to help the Tigers to a 34-2 overall record and perfect 14-0 Sierra League record last fall.
It marked the second consecutive league title and eighth in nine years for Douglas.
In only her second track and field season, she rewrote school records in the shot put and discus and capped it all off with a gold medal in the discus at the state meet in Las Vegas. Her longest throw in the discus of 153-feet, 9-inches puts her among the top 15 female high school throwers in the U.S. for 2009 and ranks among the best ever in Nevada. Waggoner and Minneah Holdridge went 1-2 in the discus at the Northern 4A meet, an 18-point swing that put Douglas in control en route to its first regional girls team title (and the school's first postseason track and field title since winning the boys 2A state meet in 1974).
Waggoner reigned as the Northern Nevada section Punt, Pass & Kick champion during her freshman and sophomore years, qualifying for the age group competition at the Oakland Coliseum. Her distances in the local competition were the best of any age - male or female.
