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June 13, 2006 WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- Washington State University's Tamara Diles and Jay Miller are among the 2005-06 Pacific-10 Conference Medal winners announced Tuesday by Commissioner Tom Hansen. A Conference Medal is awarded annually to each member institution's outstanding senior male and female student-athlete exhibiting the greatest combination of performance and achievement in scholarship, athletics and leadership. Diles rewrote the Cougar record book during her four-year track and field career at WSU. The three-time All-American set the school indoor pole vault record of 14-feet, 3 1/4 inches during her freshman season and went on to set the outdoor school record of 13-11 1/4 as a senior. In addition to leaving her mark on the record books, Diles garnered a number of awards and honors during her WSU career. The Bellevue, Wash., native was honored at the WSU Athletics Senior Banquet where she took home the Student-Athlete Advisory Council's True Cougar Award, the PROWL-TeamCARE Award, the Beulah M. Blankenship Outstanding Student-Athlete Award, and the Pacific-10 Conference Postgraduate Scholarship. Off the track Diles has been honored for academic success as she was named to the 2005-06 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII first team for women's track and field. In addition, she was named to the 2006 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholars fourth team for women's track and field and was named a Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention three times. Miller, from Bellevue, Wash., was taken in the 17th round of the 2006 baseball draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. Miller was the 517th player selected after he batted .361 for the season, sixth in the Pac-10, and led the conference in hits (88) and doubles (28). His doubles total were second in the NCAA while he also ranked No. 25 in the nation in toughest to strikeout (16.1). He began the season with a 15-game hitting streak and tied a school record by scoring five runs in an 18-10 win over Gonzaga (Mar. 3, 2006). The outfielder finished his career as WSU's career hits leader with 308. That total placed him ninth all-time in the Pac-10, while his 74 career doubles are second all-time at WSU and the fifth-most in Pac-10 history. Miller also ended his Cougar career as the all-time leader in at-bats (224), tied for third in games played (227), fifth in walks (107), sixth in runs scored (161) and tied for ninth in RBIs (147). In addition to his accomplishments on the Cougar record books, Miller went on to capture third-team honors from Collegiate Baseball newspaper to become the first Cougar All-American since Stefan Bailie earned honorable mention honors following the 2000 season. During his career, Miller was named an All-Pac-10 First Team selection in 2006, was a three-time All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention and was named to Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American team in 2003. Miller garnered recognition off the field as he was a Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention, named to the WSU Athletics All-Academic team twice, and earned WSU Libraries Scholar Athlete of the Week in both 2005 and 2006. The Conference Medal winners will be honored at the State Farm Pride of the Pac-10 Luncheon held in Los Angeles in conjunction with the Pac-10 Men's Basketball Tournament next March. Following are the 2005-06 awardees: 2005-06 Pacific-10 Conference Medal Winners
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