March 10, 2009

Get In To Win Student Contest Gallery

LUBBOCK, Texas - The Texas Tech women's basketball program has announced the winner of the "Get In To Win" student contest winner. Mitchell Parnell, from Midland, Texas, was named the winner of the contest.

This past summer, the Texas Tech women's basketball program was awarded a $20,000 grant from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for the 2008-09 academic year to help grow the game of women's basketball at the grass roots level.

Lady Raider basketball created a student promotion call "Get In To Win", which gave students an opportunity to win the equivalent of current in-state tuition for the 2009-10 academic year by coming to 10 or more Lady Raider basketball games.

Parnell, a senior architecture major, was announced the winner at the Lady Raiders' final home game on March 7, against Missouri.

In the middle of the first half of the game, Parnell was awarded $7,500 from the Lady Raider program, which will be placed directly towards his tuition for the upcoming year.

Dr. Judi Henry, Senior Woman Administrator and Senior Associate Athletics Director, and Elvis Moya, Director of Lady Raider Marketing and Promotions, along with members of the corporate partner program for the contest, presented Parnell with his check in front of 9,081 Lady Raider fans.

"I was shocked in disbelief because I didn't think that this would happen to me," said Parnell.

Parnell attended all but three games this season and was one of many who were qualified to win.

"I had a blast at all of the Lady Raider basketball games this season and I knew several of the players, including Jordan Barncastle," Parnell stated. "Jordan was actually one of the reasons I started coming to the games. She saw me at a volleyball game and asked me to start coming to the Lady Raider games.

As a result of the grant and contest, student attendance at women's basketball games for the season increased by nearly 1,000 students in comparison to last season. The highest attended game by Tech students was on Feb. 11, against Texas A&M when the attendance was 767.

The NCAA named 12 institutions and five conferences to receive funds from the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Marketing Grant Program. Other schools to receive grants were: Arizona State, Arkansas, Columbia, East Tennessee State, Florida State, Louisville, Maryland, Oklahoma, San Diego State, Washington and Western Kentucky, along with the Patriot League, Conference USA, Big Ten, Metro Atlantic Athletic and Northeast Conferences.