In selecting the 2005-06 Female Rookie of the Year, many factors were taken into consideration: how big an impact did this freshman have on her team? On the conference? Does she make players around her better? But most importantly, how great a year did she actually have?

Choosing a winner from the five deserving nominees — Katie Radzik, Kim Williams, Juliana Umeki, Brianna Strong and Jackie Strader — was not an easy task.

Two of these rookies — Strong and Strader — finished their seasons with America East titles, and without both of them, without a doubt the volleyball team would not have gone all the way. Clearly, they both had a huge impact in their first season.

Kim Williams had a spectacular rookie campaign, setting records meet after meet and helping her team in several different events. Surely, Williams has individual goals that, if met, will really allow BU to become a power in women’s track and field.

Juliana Umeki has been absolutely fantastic in her one semester with the women’s tennis team, supplanting last year’s America East Player of the Year, Zeynep Altinay, at first singles, and dropping just two matches all season long.

As fantastic as those four girls have been, we simply could not justify giving this award to anyone but Katie Radzik. One look at the numbers says it all: Radzik has already placed herself among the top women’s cross-country runners in BU history.

If you’re critical of distance running, think of it this way: what more could you ask for from her? The individual nature of cross-country certainly shouldn’t de-merit her unbelievable season.

Her 23rd place performance at the NCAAs, was the best finish a BU runner, male or female, has ever had. On that day, she broke the Binghamton record for the 6K and was the fourth-highest placing America East runner in the meet.

The majority of the season is run at a 5K distance, and Radzik absolutely obliterated the school’s record just weeks before the NCAAs, beating Binghamton’s second-best mark by almost a full minute. In an 18-minute race, a full minute is a pretty huge deal.

Radzik may be the best cross-country runner in school history, and she’s got three years (and a few races) left to continue to build her legacy. I’d wish her good luck and godspeed, but with her talent, I’m not sure godspeed would be much of an improvement.

LOOKING BACK

Last year’s Pipe Dream Rookie of the Year Jacki Kane made us look real good this season by helping lead the BU volleyball team to its first-ever NCAA D-I tournament. Kane literally dominated the league in blocking, picking up 162.0 total blocks — 64 more than the next player on the list. She was also 46th in the nation in blocks per game and sixth in the conference in hitting percentage.