SIMS EARNS TOP VIII AWARD, NCAA's HIGHEST UNDERGRADUATE HONOR

Lacrosse All-America is first Princetonian ever so honored

PRINCETON, N.J. -Josh Sims, one of the most accomplished collegiate lacrosse players of all time, has been awarded the Top VIII Award, the NCAA's highest undergraduate honor.

Sims, who graduated from Princeton last June, is the first Princetonian and fourth Ivy League athlete in history to be so honored and the first Ivy male athlete since Cornell's Daniel Mackesey in 1978. He is also the first lacrosse player to win the award since Virginia's Richard Giusto in 1983 and the fourth since the award was first given in 1973.

The Top VIII Award recognizes outstanding achievement in athletics, scholarship and community service and is given to at least one winner in Division I, Division II and Division III. In addition to Sims, the other winners for this year are Purdue quarterback Drew Brees, Auburn swimmer Matthew Busbee, Washington (Ill.) basketball player Alia Fischer, Penn State basketball player Andrea Garner, Georgia swimmer Kristy Kowal, Northern Kentucky basketball player Kevin Listerman and Fresno State softball player Amanda Scott.

The eight winners will be honored at a banquet at the NCAA's annual convention Jan. 7, 2001, at Walt Disney World in Florida.

"As a team, Princeton has been fortunate to win five NCAA men's lacrosse championships in the last decade," said Princeton lacrosse coach Bill Tierney. "To have an individual like Josh Sims represent us by winning the Top VIII Award puts an exclamation point on that achievement. Josh is a student-athlete in the truest sense of the word, and he had an outstanding career on every level."

Sims led a predominantly freshman/sophomore Princeton team to the NCAA championship game as a senior and to NCAA championships as a freshman and sophomore. He was a three-time first-team All-America and the 1998 and 2000 national midfielder of the year.

In addition, he was a three-time first-team All-Ivy League selection and the 2000 Ivy League Player of the Year. Princeton was 24-0 in the Ivy League in his four years.

As a senior, Sims scored 36 goals and had 15 assists for a team-best 51 points. He began his career with an overtime goal to defeat Johns Hopkins in his first game, and he finished with 103 goals, the most ever by a Princeton midfielder and the fifth-highest total in school history.

He scored five goals and had one assist in three career NCAA championship games, and he had seven goals in NCAA semifinals, including three this year in Princeton's thrilling 12-11 win over defending-champion Virginia. He also started every game of his career.

Academically, Sims graduated with a 3.54 grade-point average in eonomics. He was a first-team Academic All-America in 2000 and a second-team selection in 1999, and he was a three-time Academic All-Ivy League honoree.

Sims also worked with Princeton's lacrosse team in its efforts to raise money for the Central Jersey Pediatric AIDS foundation and was a visitor to children in the hospital. He has worked at numerous youth lacrosse camps and clinics.

Sims currently plays lacrosse professionally in both the indoor and outdoor leagues.