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CAPE COD, Mass. - Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Commissioner Rudy Keeling announced today the four recipients of the ECAC Award of Valor. This year's winners are Liz Mancuso (Dartmouth College/Andover, Mass.), Casey Pereira (University of Rhode Island/Ashland, Mass.), Conor Reardon (Brown University/Branford, Conn.), and Dave Taraschi (Rutgers-Camden/Haddonfield, N.J.). They will receive their awards on Sunday, September 28, at the ECAC Convention Honors Dinner at the Albany Crowne Plaza. 

Established in 1985, the ECAC Award of Valor honors ECAC athletes whose courage, motivation, and relentless determination serves as an inspiration to all. The recipients exemplify strength of character and perseverance deserving recognition as being truly triumphant.

Following a successful freshman season on the Dartmouth women's swimming team, Mancuso was diagnosed with a life-threatening form of thyroid cancer. She was promptly treated with surgery, removing her thyroid gland through an incision in her neck in the summer of 2005. She returned to the team as a sophomore, tentative but still ambitious. That ambition led to great success during her final three years. One of the most versatile swimmers in Big Green history, she holds the school record in the 200 individual medley and is a member of four relay records. As a senior, she was named team captain and is on 10 all-time Top Ten lists, including six individual lists. During her career with the Big Green, she has set a total of 11 school records. Mancuso is a two-time Lutkus Award winner as the most outstanding and consistent swimmer on the team. An Academic All-Ivy selection this season, she also won the Coaches Award and was this year's Most Valuable swimmer.  

A gymnast at URI, Pereira was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma three days before practice her sophomore season. It took less than 24 hours for her to decide she would not only remain with the Rams, but attend every meet. Sometimes sick, bald, and nauseous, Pereira still made it to every meet during the 2006 season - still proud to call herself a part of the team. After attending every URI meet and waking up at 5:00 a.m. every Wednesday for seven-hour sessions of chemotherapy, blood work, and CAT scans in Boston, Pereira returned to the mats for the start of her junior season. So weakened from her treatments, the once strong Pereira was unable to do a push up or run around the block without getting winded, but she managed to work herself back into shape through grueling workouts and went on to earn ECAC Specialist of the Year honors. As a freshman, Pereira had helped the Rams to a second place finish at the ECACs, and as a junior she helped URI to a third place showing at the ECAC Championship. This past season, she was a key member of the Rams' second-place squad at the ECAC Championship.

After a decent rookie campaign on the Brown baseball team when he hit .286 with eight hits in 16 games, Reardon was hit by a car while at home in Connecticut in late 2005. Injuries sustained to his right leg were so severe that doctors considered amputating it. He has had five surgeries on the leg, while dealing with complications including nerve damage, vascular damage, and scar tissue buildup. Reardon failed to see progress in his rehabilitation until the summer of 2007. That fall, he took batting practice at the urging of two teammates, and despite two years of rust, found he could still hit. Reardon decided to come back to the team. Reardon still does not have full function in his leg, limiting him to duty as the designated hitter, and forcing him to the bench to rest when the pain becomes too severe. After a fantastic season, was named the team's MVP. A second team All-Northeast Region selection by the American Baseball Coaches Association, Reardon hit .395 to lead the Bears this season. Reardon was fifth in the Ivy League in batting average, and second on the team with a .443 on-base percentage. He also earned first team All-Ivy and All-New England honors this spring, Reardon finished the season on a team-high 18-game hitting streak, and tied for the team lead with 20 multi-hit games. A history concentrator with a 3.94 GPA entering his final semester, Reardon was named an ESPN The Magazine second team Academic All-American by CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America). This fall, he will begin a two-year term with the Teach for America program.

Taraschi, a golfer at Rutgers-Camden, suffered a serious infection to his left eye that caused him to miss most of the 2007 fall season and resulted in permanent vision loss in the eye. Despite numerous trips to doctors, Taraschi lost about 75 percent of his vision in his left eye. He has overcome this tragedy and remains the top golfer on the Rutgers-Camden team. He has been the Scarlet Raptors' top golfer in all 15 of his career rounds (including a two-round tournament), has posted a 76.8 career collegiate average and has been the overall individual medalist at six of his 14 career matches. Taraschi holds the Rutgers-Camden program record with a round of 69 and was named the golf team's Most Valuable Player in each of his first two years. Last spring he was honored with the prestigious William P. Carty Memorial Award as Rutgers-Camden's Most Courageous Athlete. During the 2008 spring season, Taraschi was the team's top golfer in all six matches, including three outings where he was the overall medalist. His first overall medalist honor came on April 10 when he shot a season-best 73 against Richard Stockton to tie for the sixth-lowest score in program history. He also was the overall medalist on April 24 at the Rutgers-Camden Scarlet Raptors Spring Invitational when he shot a 75, and in a dual match against Wesley College on April 29 when he fired a 77. Eight days earlier he finished third overall, shooting a 151 in the two-day Wesley Spring Invitational (April 20-21). That invitational included an opening-day round of 74 for Taraschi, tied for the 11th-best round in program history. Taraschi's top performance came on April 10, 2007, at the Tom Ruggieri Invitational II, held at The Springhaven Club in Wallingford, Penn. He shot a 69 to break the old Rutgers-Camden match record by two strokes. Taraschi was also the overall medalist at that event. Taraschi barely missed qualifying for the 2008 United States Open, but was an alternate. A business major at Rutgers-Camden, he hopes to become a PGA professional.

About the ECAC^®
The ECAC is the nation's largest athletic and the only multi-divisional conference in the country with 321 Divisions I, II, and III colleges and universities.  The ECAC stretches from Maine to North Carolina and westerly to Illinois. Established in 1938, the ECAC, a non-profit service organization, sponsors more than 100 championships in 37 men's and women's sports and assigns more than 4,400 officials in 12 sports.  The ECAC also administers eight affiliate sports organizations and six playing leagues, and through the public relations arm of the conference, more than 2,500 student-athletes in 23 sports are recognized annually.  Finally, the ECAC serves as the primary conference for select members in the sports of men's and women's ice hockey and men's lacrosse.