The NCAA will honor eight standout student-athletes for their athletics success, academic achievements and community service as recipients of the NCAA Today's Top VIII.

The honorees, chosen by the NCAA Honors Committee, will be recognized January 9 during the Honors Dinner at the 99th annual NCAA Convention in Dallas.

The Today's Top VIII are: Kelly Albin, University of California, Davis, lacrosse; Caesar Garcia, Auburn University, swimming and diving; Tara Kirk, Stanford University, swimming and diving; Kelly Mazzante, Pennsylvania State University, basketball; Kay Mikolajczak, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, basketball and outdoor track and field; Ogonna Nnamani, Stanford University, volleyball; Angela Ruggiero, Harvard University, ice hockey; and Kelly Wilson, University of Texas at Austin, soccer.

Following are brief summaries of the winners' accomplishments.

Kelly Albin
University of California, Davis
Lacrosse

Albin, the 2004 NCAA Woman of the Year, earned Harrow Sports/Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) and Inside Lacrosse first-team all-American honors. The four-year letter-winner also was a first-team all-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation selection. Two-time captain of the women's lacrosse squad, Albin closed out the 2004 season ranked 12th in NCAA Division II for assists per game and 19th in points per game. She established UC Davis career marks in assists, season assists, assists in a game, ground balls and turnovers and was ranked second in goals in a game, career points, season points and career shots.

Albin, a food science major with an emphasis in microbiology, was named as the 2004 IWLCA NCAA Division II Scholar-Athlete of the year and an NCAA postgraduate scholarship recipient. She was selected for the 2004 UC Davis outstanding senior leadership award and twice won the school's Alfred J. Hoefer Award, presented for academics, leadership and athletics achievement.

Albin was the lacrosse squad representative for the UC Davis Student-Athlete Advisory Council. She also helped install a septic system in a preschool and plant 1,000 saplings on a reforestation site as a volunteer in Peru. Albin served as an assistant soccer coach at Fort Bragg (California) High School and was a Shriner's Hospital volunteer.

Caesar Garcia
Auburn University
Swimming and diving

Named as the 2003-04 NCAA diver of the year, Garcia took first place in platform diving at the Division I Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships in 2003. The all-American also earned first place in the platform during the 2002-03 Olympic Trials. Garcia, the 2001 Southeastern Conference freshman diver of the year, is a member of the U.S. Men's National Team and was named as USA Diving's sportsman of the year.

A mechanical engineering major, Garcia was a finalist for the Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship and also was selected as the 2003 SEC Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The first-team Academic All-American also was named as Auburn's outstanding mechanical engineering student of the year in 2003. Garcia is a member of the Pi Tau Sigma engineering society, Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society and Golden Key National Honor Society.

Garcia initiated and taught the Character Counts program at local elementary schools and served as vice-chair and head of the community-service committee for Auburn's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for two years. In addition, he participated in the Read Across America program and served as an athlete representative on the board of directors for U.S. Diving.

Tara Kirk
Stanford University
Swimming and diving

Kirk was the first four-time NCAA Division I champion in the 100-meter breaststroke. In addition, the 16-time all-American and 11-time NCAA champion established six American records and captured 14 Pacific-10 Conference titles. Kirk, a 2004 Olympic qualifier, was named as the recipient of the 2004 Honda Broderick Cup as the collegiate woman of the year. The three-time team captain won all 35 collegiate races she entered in the 100-yard breaststroke and took first in her final 19 collegiate races in the 200-meter breaststroke. She was chosen as the 2004 Pac-10 swimmer of the year.

A human biology major and 2004 NCAA postgraduate scholarship recipient, Kirk was a three-time Pac-10 all-academic first-team selection.

Kirk volunteered for the Special Olympics and served as an instructor at swimming clinics for local age-group teams. A two-year member of the Cardinal Council, Stanford's student-athlete council that advises and is consulted on athletics department decisions, she started an e-mail mentoring group for young swimmers and was a speaker at the Stanford Swim Camp.

Kelly Mazzante
Pennsylvania State University
Basketball

A three-time Women's Basketball Coaches Association/Kodak all-American, Mazzante is the all-time leading scorer, male or female, in Big Ten Conference history with 2,919 points. In addition to holding conference records in single-game (49 points) and season scoring (872 points), she was the fastest in league history to tally 1,000 and 2,000 career points. The two-time Penn State female student-athlete of the year and 2004 Suzy Favor Big Ten Female Student-Athlete of the Year also was the first player to lead the Big Ten in scoring for three straight years. Mazzante, a John R. Wooden all-American and a three-time Naismith national player of the year finalist, won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. Young Women's Qualifying Team in 2002.

Mazzante was an advertising and public relations major at Penn State. She was a three-time selection to the Big Ten all-academic team and a second-team Academic All-American in 2003.

Mazzante served as an Easter Seals volunteer, assisting special-needs children with therapeutic horseback riding. She also volunteered for the United Way and participated in an American Cancer Society walk. A coach and dorm supervisor for Penn State basketball summer camps, Mazzante also served as a speaker at local elementary and high schools.

Kay Mikolajczak
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
Basketball/track and field

A three-year letter-winner on the court, Mikolajczak tallied 1,124 points and collected 643 rebounds and ranked first in career blocked shots with 127. The 2004 Josten's Player of the Year was a Women's Basketball Coaches Association/Kodak first-team all-American in 2004. She helped guide the Titans to the 2004 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) championship and also led the league with 12 double-doubles.

A two-time all-American in track and field, Mikolajczak was a member of the 2004 NCAA Division III outdoor track and field national-championship team in addition to placing fourth in the heptathlon. She was the 2003 conference champion in the javelin and earned second-team all-WIAC recognition in the high jump in 2002.

The 2004 NCAA postgraduate scholarship recipient majored in biology with a minor in pre-physical therapy. Mikolajczak, the 2004 NCAA Woman of the Year representative for the state of Wisconsin, was chosen as the 2004 WIAC Co-Scholar Athlete of the Year in basketball. She also earned Wisconsin-Oshkosh's John Taylor Senior Scholar-Athlete award.

In addition to serving as president of the school's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Mikolajczak was a member of a campus gender-equity committee that performs an annual review of Title IX compliance. She also volunteered with Special Olympics and at a senior day care.

Ogonna Nnamani
Stanford University
Volleyball

The 2004 Pacific-10 Conference player of the year, Nnamani was four-year starter for the Cardinal and served as team captain during her senior season. She ranks first in career kills and single-season kills for Stanford and ranks in the top 15 nationally for career kills. The American Volleyball Coaches Association first-team all-American and Honda Award nominee earned a bronze medal at the 2003 Pan American Games. She is the Pac-10 record holder for career kills, attack attempts and most points in a season. Nnamani, a member of the 2004 U.S. Olympic indoor volleyball team, was the Pac-10 and Volleyball Magazine's national freshman of the year during Stanford's national-championship season in 2001.

A human biology major, Nnamani was a first-team Academic All-American and a three-time conference all-academic selection.

The four-year starter was a member of the Cardinal Council, the student-athlete advisory committee at Stanford, and served as a tutor in oral communications. She also volunteered as a motivational speaker at local elementary schools and high schools.

Angela Ruggiero
Harvard University
Ice hockey

Named the 2004 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award winner as the top player in women's collegiate ice hockey, Ruggiero led Harvard to appearances in the 2003 and 2004 Women's Frozen Four championship games. She became only the second player to be named as an American Hockey Coaches Association first-team all-American four times. The Ivy League and Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) player of the year, Ruggiero was a member of the gold-medal-winning 1998 U.S. Olympic women's ice hockey team. She also won a silver medal at the 2002 Games. Ruggiero was a two-time USA Hockey women's player of the year and was chosen as the recipient of the 2004 International Ice Hockey Federation Directorate Award as the best defenseman at the World Championships.

The government major was an Academic All-American in 2004 and a two-time academic all-ECAC choice. A two-time captain for the Crimson, Ruggiero was honored with the 2004 Radcliffe Association Award as Harvard's top female student-athlete.

Ruggiero served as co-chair of the Harvard Radcliffe Foundation for Women's Athletics and volunteered with Sports Activism Youth, a program that brings sport to children living in refugee areas. She founded the All-American Girls Hockey School and was a member of Harvard's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Kelly Wilson
University of Texas at Austin
Soccer

Wilson, the 2003 Big 12 Conference offensive player of the year, helped guide Texas to four straight NCAA tournament appearances and four consecutive 10-plus-win seasons. The two-time all-American also helped Texas win its first conference championship in 2001. Wilson, who established Longhorn career records for game-winning goals, assists, points, games played and games started, ranked in the top two in the conference in every offensive category during the 2004 season. She was member of the 2002 U.S. National Team and the 2003-04 U.S. Under-21 National Team. Wilson was a candidate for the 2003 FIFA World Player of the Year Award.

The education and kinesiology major was the recipient of the 2004 Big 12 Conference Scholar-Athlete Award. Wilson was an Academic All-American and a first-team academic all-Big 12 selection. She was twice honored with Texas' Doc Neuhaus Award for athletics and academic achievements.

Wilson served as a volunteer soccer coach for a youth soccer team and participated in Pen Pals for local elementary students. She also provided services for sick and disabled members of her church.