NEW YORK—A trio of Villanova student-athletes were honored with BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Awards in an announcement made by the conference on Monday afternoon. The award is presented to one student-athlete from each of the 22 sports sponsored by the BIG EAST. This year's Wildcats award winners are Trudy-Ann Williamson (women's indoor track & field); Michael Perra (men's swimming & diving); and Micaela Grassi (women's swimming & diving). 
 
Villanova has had 17 winners of BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Awards in the last seven years. The honor recognizes academic and athletic achievements, as well as community service. Student-athletes are eligible for the award by having reached junior academic standing and having a minimum GPA of 3.0. The winners are chosen by the BIG EAST Faculty Athletics Representative Council.
 
Trudy-Ann Williamson – Indoor Track & Field
Williamson is a Psychology major with a concentration in Psychological and Brain Sciences. The standout sprinter for the Wildcats is a four-time member of the BIG EAST All-Academic Team and has been named to the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic Team for track & field in each of the last three years. Williamson has earned a spot on the Athletic Director's Honor Roll for having a semester GPA of 3.2 or higher in all eight grading periods of her collegiate career.
 
On the track, Williamson is a six-time BIG EAST champion and a nine-time All-BIG EAST performer. In her final competition of the 2020 indoor season, she won her third consecutive conference title in the 60 meters and set school records in both the 60 meters and the 200 meters on the same day. Williamson has run each of the 20 fastest races in school history in the 60 meters and she lowered the current school standard to 7.35 in the BIG EAST final on March 2. Later in the day she was the runner-up in the 200 meters with a school indoor record time of 23.72. During the 2020 indoor season, Williamson also was the only collegiate runner in the field of eight competitors for the invitational 60 meter dash at the Millrose Games.
 
Michael Perra – Men's Swimming & Diving
Perra was chosen as the male winner of this year's Villanova Senior Student-Athlete of the Year award. He graduated from Villanova cum laude with a major in Biology and a double minor in Spanish Language and Literature & Global Health. Perra, who aspires to become a surgeon, was an honorable mention selection to the 2018-19 and 2019-20 CSCAA Scholar All-America Teams. He is a six-time Dean's List honoree and was named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll every semester of his academic career. Perra is a four-time member of the BIG EAST All-Academic Team and a three-time member of the Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Team.
 
During an impressive collegiate career, Perra was a three-time BIG EAST Championships Most Outstanding Diver. He swept the conference titles on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards in each of the last three seasons, putting a cap on his career at the conference championships as a senior in 2020 when he tallied winning totals of 579.00 points in the 1-meter diving competition and 568.10 points in the 3-meter competition. Perra competed at 10 meets and registered a total of nine first-place finishes during the 2019-20 season. In addition to the BIG EAST Championships, he also swept the 1-meter and 3-meter competitions in dual meets against Georgetown, Providence and Connecticut and scored a win on the 1-meter board against Penn. Perra is a six-time All-BIG EAST Performer and a two-time BIG EAST Athlete of the Week.
 
Micaela Grassi – Women's Swimming & Diving
Grassi graduated from Villanova this spring as a double major in English and Criminology. She has been named to the BIG EAST All-Academic Team all four years of her collegiate career as well as to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll in all eight of her semesters on campus.
 
Grassi has been a member of a women's swimming & diving program that is riding a streak of seven consecutive BIG EAST titles. She was a key contributor to the team as a four-time BIG EAST champion and four-time All-BIG EAST performer. Three of those honors came as a senior in 2020, when she was the individual conference champion in the 100 yard butterfly with a winning time of 54.87 in the final. She also posted a fifth place finish in the 200 yard butterfly with a time of 2:03.24 and swam a leg of the BIG EAST champion 200 yard medley relay and 400 yard medley relay. Grassi won the 100 yard butterfly against both Georgetown and La Salle during her senior year, as well as sweeping the 100 and 200 yard butterfly races against Richmond.