Swimmer Tori Bindi is the University of Florida’s women’s nominee for the Southeastern Conference’s H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award.
Bindi will graduate with a 3.94 grade point average as a biochemistry major. She was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll all four years and a 2018 CSCAA Scholar All-America Honorable Mention. Bindi was named an Outstanding Leader of Florida’s Spring 2020 graduating class, the first student-athlete to earn the honor since 2015. The Gulf Breeze, Fla., native was the president of Florida’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee, a member of the Gators Leadership Experience and Florida’s representative at the SEC Leadership Conference.
In the pool, Bindi made NCAAs as a junior as part of the 800 freestyle relay. She set personal-bests in her final collegiate meet, the SEC Championships, in both the 200 free and 500 free.
Her academic work has included positions as a research assistant at the UF Brain Institute, a surgical services intern/physician shadow at UF Shands Hospital and an orthopedic surgical intern at the Andrews Institute. She plans on taking the MCAT and applying to medical school, with aspiration of becoming an orthopedic or pediatric plastic surgeon. Bindi will continue to study in the UF Brain Institute lab with Dr. David Fuller to work on possible gene therapies for children suffering Pompe disease.
Along with Tori Bindi, Florida’s men’s nominee is baseball player Kirby McMullen. The contest awards post-graduate scholarships of $20,000 to the top male and female senior athlete from the conference’s 14 schools. The 26 finalists each receive a $10,000 scholarship. Bindi joins Alabama’s Zane Waddell and Auburn’s Bailey Nero as swimmers nominated for the 2020 award.
The H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Postgraduate Scholarship has been presented annually since 1986 to the SEC’s top male and female scholar-athletes. The conference’s 14 member institutions will release their nominations over the next two weeks, and the recipient will be named in late May. Past swimming recipients include Anton McKee (Alabama, 2017), Sarah Gibson (Texas A&M, 2017), Maddie Locus (Georgia, 2015), Shannon Vreeland (Georgia, 2014), Wendy Trott (Georgia, 2012), Dan Mazzaferro (Auburn, 2011), Erica Meissner (Auburn, 2011), Jordan Anderson (Auburn, 2010) and Christine Magnuson (Tennessee, 2009).
