SAN FRANCISCO - Oregon women's soccer's Eden Hardy and Oregon State wrestling's Lane Stigall have been named the 2021-22 recipients of the annual Pac-12 Student-Athlete Leadership Awards, the conference announced today. Hardy is the fourth Duck and Stigall is the eighth Beaver to receive the honor since the award was established in 2002. 

The Pac-12 Conference established the Pac-12 Leadership Award to recognize student-athletes who have served on their institutional Student-Athlete Advisory Committees (SAAC) and demonstrated leadership. This Pac-12 Leadership Award is a $3,000 scholarship for postgraduate study awarded to one male and one female student-athlete each year.

The Pac-12 Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which is composed of representatives from each member institution, selects the winners of the award each year from nominations submitted by each campus SAAC.

Hardy has been a member of the executive committee of Oregon's SAAC since 2019, serving as the co-chair of its BEOREGON subcommittee. BEOREGON is the department's diversity and inclusion initiative, which encourages people to be their most authentic self and to highlight and celebrate the diverse backgrounds of Oregon student-athletes and staff through education, events and other opportunities. 

In addition to her SAAC executive role, Hardy has represented Oregon at a number of conference events to share her experience as a student-athlete participating in activism and the importance of using her platform to make change, including the Pac-12 Global University Sports Summit in 2019 and Pac-12 Green Team: Amplifying Voices for Change in 2021. She also participated in the Pac-12 Student-Athlete Impact Activism Panel earlier this year, where the group discussed social injustices in the United States and the importance of using their voices, and will attend the Pac-12 Student-Athlete Health Conference this week in Las Vegas.

Hardy has also taken advantage of other speaking and community outreach engagement opportunities inside and outside of Eugene during her time at Oregon. In the summer of 2019, she went on an O Heroes service trip and constructed a basketball court for primary school students in Jamaica.

On the field, she took advantage of the extra year of eligibility provided by the COVID-19 pandemic and finished her five-year career third in program history in matches played (85). 

A biology major with a double minor in chemistry and Spanish as an undergraduate, Hardy plans on becoming a doctor and will continue her studies in medical school.

Stigall, who graduated from Oregon State in March with a 3.96 GPA and his bachelor's degree in biological sciences, has been involved in leadership capacities with OSU's SAAC and Student-Athlete Leadership Team (SALT) since arriving in Corvallis as a transfer from Missouri in 2019.

An official member of the Pac-12's governance structure as a SALT representative, Stigall worked to create, present, and adopt policy recommendations to help enhance the student-athlete experience across the league. He created proposals for legislation dealing with graduate school preparation, academic freedom and transparency, and social justice.

A volunteer youth wrestling coach for the past six years, Stigall also volunteered his time throughout the past year as an online crisis counselor.

He scored a 519 on the MCAT last fall, the highest-ever score for an Oregon State student-athlete and has secured a full-time internship with Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), a top public research university dedicated to health sciences containing two major hospitals in Portland. Stigall will work at OHSU while applying to medical school.

To be eligible for the award, nominees must have completed or be in their final season of athletics eligibility, be enrolled in or plan to attend graduate school, have been a letter winner in a varsity sport, and have served a minimum of one year on the campus SAAC. Other factors which may be taken into account during the selection process include other leadership activities, community service, grade-point average, service as a SAAC officer, and level of athletic achievement.