It was officially announced at the University of Redlands Honors Convocation on Thursday morning that graduate student Reyna Ta'amu (Lakewood, CA) was named the 2019 Frank Serrao Female Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while senior Luke Bohlinger (Mercer Island, WA) was selected as the 2019 Frank Serrao Male Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year. They both hail from Head Coach Mike Schmidt's track & field program, with Ta'amu also contributing four years to Bulldog women's basketball.
Given in honor of longtime football coach and educator Frank Serrao, this award acknowledges the top male and female senior scholar-athletes who best exemplify strong academic and athletic success at the University of Redlands. The head coaches and various directors within the Bulldog Athletics nominate and vote upon this prestigious accolade.
While earning her bachelor's and master's in Business Administration, Ta'amu has gained unique successes in each of her sports during her tenure at Redlands. She became a three-time All-SCIAC performer en route to scoring 1, 085 points and nabbing 584 rebounds to respectively land sixth and eighth all-time among the Bulldog women's basketball records book.
As a junior, she took her talents to the track & field team and impressed by qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the Shot Put that year. Since then, she has become a three-time All-Region honoree, with her third accolade coming in her inaugural year of indoor competition. She was also named the 2019 West Region's Indoor Women's Field Athlete of the Year and became an Indoor All-American with a fourth-place mark of 47' 3 ¾" at the national meet.
In outdoor competition, she owns multiple school records and ranks among the best in NCAA Division III history. She garnered All-America status with her fourth-place showing in the Shot Put during the 2018 campaign.
Additional honors are likely to follow her in the coming weeks, beginning with the SCIAC Track & Field Championships this weekend. She hopes to defend her Shot Put title while anticipating another NCAA appearance. She is ranked first in the nation with a heave of 48' ¾".
Ta'amu also competes in the Discus Throw and Hammer Throw with respective career-best marks of 119' 11" and 132' 1".
Bohlinger has excelled academically and athletically throughout his four-years at Redlands. He looks forward to celebrating the completion of his degree in Political Science during tomorrow's commencement. A three-time SCIAC All-Academic member, he also landed on the Dean's List and garnered U.S. Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic nods in two seasons, with the final accolades of his career still to be announced.
On the track, Bohlinger continues to shine in the sprints, particularly in the 60 Meters, 100 Meters, 200 Meters, and 4x100 Relay. He is a five-time All-SCIAC honoree, with this year's awards to be determined this weekend at the conference championship meet. He also boasts multiple All-Region awards for recording times that rank in the top five in the West Region in any given season. He owns six for outdoor track & field and five for indoor so far.
Bohlinger collected three USTFCCCA All-America awards for three top-eight finishes at the 2018 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships. He strives to enhance that list during the 2019 national meet.
In terms of times, Bohlinger's career-best effort of 10.43 in the 100 Meters came at the SCIAC Championships in 2018. During the same meet, he also ran the fastest 200 of his career at 21.08 to claim the SCIAC title. With his help, the 4x100 fired off a time of 40.98 at the 2018 NCAA Division III Championship meet for sixth place.
This season Bohlinger is undefeated in SCIAC Multi-Dual meets and is currently ranked 15th in Division III in the 200 Meters.
These two outstanding Frank Serrao honorees now join a remarkable list of Bulldog student-athletes, including last year's recipients, women's golfer Caroline Ordian '18 (Palm Desert, CA) and Casey ChubbFertal '18 (Eugene, OR).