The Pac-12 announced Tuesday that Utah skier Martin Bergström and gymnast Maddy Stover have been named recipients of the 2017-18 Tom Hansen Conference Medal.
The conference medal is awarded annually to each Pac-12 institution’s outstanding senior male and female student-athlete based on a combination of academics, athletics and leadership.
Bergström won three NCAA individual championships in his career. That’s the most of any Nordic skier in Utah history. He won back-to-back NCAA 10km classic titles in 2017-18 and was also the NCAA 20-km freestyle champion in 2017 while leading Utah to the NCAA team title.
Bergström was a 2018 Academic All-American, making the at-large second team with a 3.94 cumulative grade point average in mathematics. His 3.94 GPA is the best of Utah’s senior male student-athletes.
Stover was a 2015 second-team All-American and first-team All-Pac-12 performer on the balance beam. She started for four NCAA qualifying teams, including Utah’s NCAA runner-up team in 2015 and Super Six finalist in 2017 and 2018. A three-time first-team Pac-12 All-Academic choice and NACGC Scholar All-American, Stover graduated Kappa Tau Alpha with a 3.85 cumulative GPA in communication.
A team captain and two-term president of Utah’s Crimson Council, she participated in numerous community service engagements and was the 2017-18 recipient of the Bennion Center Student-Athlete in Service Award.
Conference medal winners have been named every year since 1960-61.
In 2009, the Pac-12 renamed the award the Tom Hansen Conference Medal in honor of Hansen, who retired at the end of June 2009 after serving for 26 years as commissioner of the Pac-10.