Passananti, Duling IWU Winners of Chapman Award

Illinois Wesleyan seniors Jenna Passananti (left) and Bryan Duling have been chosen as the 2008 Illinois Wesleyan winners of the Merle Chapman Leadership Award in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, presented on Monday, April 14 at the CCIW’s year-end Student-Athlete Advisory Council luncheon.

Passananti is a volleyball player from Western Springs, Ill. (LaGrange Lyons HS and Duling is a men's track and field athlete from Clinton, Ill. (HS).

The award, which began during the 2002-03 academic year, is named after the longtime football coach/athletics director at Millikin University and the second commissioner of the CCIW. Chapman served in that capacity from 1997-2002. The award identifies the student-athletes from the eight member institutions that best exemplify the traits that Chapman displayed and encouraged during his three-plus decades of service as teacher, coach and mentor to the athletes, coaches and administrators of the CCIW. Those traits are loyalty, enthusiasm, and commitment to academic, athletic and personal excellence, leadership and sportsmanship.

Each school is allowed to name one male and one female student-athlete from its Student-Athlete Advisory Council.