Princeton University Athletics
Wheatley, Cook Named PNC Winter Achievers
February 24, 2016 | General
Princeton Athletics is pleased to announce the winter-season winners of the Student-Athlete Achiever Award, presented by PNC Bank.
Senior Alex Wheatley of the women's basketball team and junior Steven Cook of the men's basketball team have been selected as the recipients of the honor.
The process provides Princeton Athletics with the opportunity to identify two student-athletes per season who have excelled not only in their competitive landscape, but in their overall achievement as a member of the Princeton community. Each season, these students will be nominated by their coaches and finalists will be selected by a committee of senior athletics administrators.
Alex Wheatley
An ecology and evolutionary biology major and team captain, Wheatley has earned the Frederick P. Hitz '61 Scholar in the Nation's Service award, which is awarded to five Princeton students seeking a career in public policy. She is also a recipient of the W. Thatcher Longstreth '41 Student-Athlete Award, which is awarded to two Philadelphia-area Tigers who excel in the classroom and their sport. On the court, Wheatley is so far a two-time Ivy League champion, a first-team honoree in 2015 and an All-Ivy honorable mention in 2014. She broke the 1,000-point mark earlier this season, the 24th Princeton player to do so. Wheatley has worked with Athletes Helping Athletes, the Princeton Varsity Club's Reading with the Tigers and Weapons of Mass Construction, The Food Trust in Philadelphia, and, on campus, Princeton's Women's Mentorship Program and the Food Waste Reduction pilot projects at Princeton's Mathey and Forbes Colleges.
Steven Cook
An economics major and team tri-captain, Steven Cook was a second-team All-Ivy Leaguer last season and has started every game so far this season. Last summer, Cook interned in business operations at the anti-poverty Heartland Alliance in his native Chicago. In that role, he helped reorganize business operations systems at Heartland's largest health clinic for the homeless. Cook has spent the past year as an independent fundraiser for the Gidel Mother of Mercy Hospital in Sudan, working toward a goal of raising $80,000 for medical supplies, facilities and personnel. Within the athletic program, Cook has visited the Princeton YMCA with the men's basketball team and has served as the team liaison for community service to the Princeton Varsity Club.