May 27, 2015 DAVIS, Calif. -- Three-time All-Big West Conference selection Brian Ford, three-time Big West Track Athlete of the Year Ashley Marshall, and two-time Big West scoring champion and 2015 player of the year Corey Hawkins, have been named winners of UC Davis athletics' top student-athlete awards for the 2014-15 athletics year, it was announced on Wednesday.

Ford, named as one of 29 recipients of the prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship back in March, will receive the W.P. Lindley Award as the department's outstanding student-athlete.

Marshall, who became the first-ever student-athlete to earn track athlete of the year honors three times in a career from the conference, has been named the Dr. Hubert Heitman Award winner as the outstanding female student-athlete for a second consecutive year, while Hawkins, a 2015 Associated Press All-American, is the winner of the Colby E. "Babe" Slater Award as the outstanding male student-athlete for the second time in his career.

Presented on an annual basis, all three awards will be handed out at the student-athlete senior recognition luncheon on Sunday (May 31) at the ARC Ballroom on campus.

Ford, a senior defender for the Aggies' men's soccer team, became the fourth UC Davis student-athlete in the program's Division I history to be named an NCAA Postgraduate Scholar after wrapping up a stellar playing career during the fall. A two-year captain of the Aggies, Ford earned All-Big West honors as a junior and senior, playing all but 33 of a possible 2,047 minutes in 2015 while helping UC Davis lead the conference in fewest goals allowed (16) and goals against average (0.70).

Off the field, the Newport Beach, California, native was named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America's Scholar All-West Region squad and the Capital One Academic All-District VIII Team for the second time in his career, while also earning three Big West All-Academic awards during his UC Davis career.

A neurobiology, physiology, and behavior major with a cumulative 3.64 GPA, the well-rounded Ford has served as an intern in the cardio thoracic postoperative recovery unit at the UC Davis Medical Center, is a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee officer, is a member of the campus' Title IX committee and has been a performer at Aggie Idol, a student-athlete talent show. He is also a member of the Muscular Dystrophy Association Club, a featured artist in The Art of Athletes, a member of the Athletics Advisory Committee, an invited speaker at New Student-Athlete Orientation, and an AgAdemics volunteer.

Ford will graduate in June 2015, but began a year-long interdisciplinary internship in April with the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the UC Davis Medical Center, where he collaborates with researchers from molecular biology, genetics, physical medicine, and pharmacology to research neuromuscular diseases. His personal research project over the next year will focus on the properties of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in the neuromuscular junction.

Ranking among the nation's best sprinters, Marshall adds to her stellar career with her second-straight Heitman Award just a week after earning the Big West Conference's top track honor for an unprecedented third consecutive season. The senior from Moreno Valley was a double-winner in the 100- and 200-meter dashes at the 2015 Big West Championships, winning with UC Riverside Stadium record times of 11.52 and 23.35, respectively, while helping the Aggies to a second-place finish as a team.

Marshall became the first student-athlete to win both events for three straight seasons and became the first woman to win three consecutive titles in the 200. She also ran the leadoff leg on the 4x100 relay that finished second but still owns the Big West's fastest time this season, and was a member on the fourth-place 4x400 relay. In all, she accounted for 20 individual points and 33 points overall in the meet for UC Davis.

Marshall ran a wind-aided 100 time of 11.22 seconds at the Mt. SAC Relays in April which ranks her tied for the ninth-fastest in the country. She is the highest ranked Big West athlete in any event - male or female - in the national rankings. Her wind-aided time of 23.18 seconds in the 200 at Mt. SAC is 24th-best in Div. I this season and won her the collegiate/open section at the meet. She won the 200 at all five meets she's run so far this year.

She is currently in Austin, Texas, to compete at the NCAA West Preliminary Meet this week with her sights set on a return to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, which begin on June 7.

Hawkins, a senior from Goodyear, Arizona, who was named the Slater Award winner as a sophomore in 2012, helped engineer the biggest turnaround in Division I college basketball in 2014-15, leading the Aggies to a 25-7 overall record (including an unbeaten 14-0 mark at The Pavilion), the program's first-ever Big West regular season championship, and inaugural Division I postseason appearance in the National Invitation Tournament, all coming a season after the Aggies finished 9-22.

Claiming his second Big West scoring title in the last three seasons, Hawkins ranked seventh in the nation at 20.9 points per game and led the NCAA by shooting .488 from beyond the arc. An All-District IX selection from both the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and National Association of Basketball Coaches, Hawkins finished among the Big West's best in 10 different statistical categories, earning additional All-America honors when he was named a finalist for the Lou Henson Award - presented to the top Division I mid-major player in the country - while finishing as UC Davis' all-time No. 2 scorer with 1,694 career points.

Other nominees for the Lindley Award include Hilvy Cheung (Women's Swimming & Diving), Elsie Fullerton (Women's Water Polo), Ian Joseph (Football), Kelsey Harris (Women's Basketball), Frederique Sleiffer (Women's Tennis), Kaylin Squyres (Volleyball), Kayla Wigney (Field Hockey), John Williams (Baseball), and Andrea Wong (Women's Golf).

Others nominated for the Heitman Award include Martha Duterte (Field Hockey), Keelia Houston (Women's Water Polo), Elizabeth Landry (Lacrosse), Sydnee Fipps (Women's Basketball), Dani Judal (Gymnastics), Kaylin Squyres (Volleyball), and Andrea Wong (Women's Golf).

Ian Joseph (Football), Chris Richardson (Men's Water Polo), Izaak Silva (Baseball), and Luke Vivolo (Men's Golf), were also put forth for this year's Slater Award.