May 17, 2002

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - University of North Carolina men's swimmer Seth Laughlin has been named one of the recipients of the 2002 Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award given by the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics.

The Wilma Rudolph Award is specifically designed to honor collegiate athletes who have overcome great personal, academic or emotional odds to achieve academic success while competing in college athletics.

Laughlin, a three-year captain of the Tar Heel men's swimming and diving team, is a native of Bethesda, Md. During his junior year at Carolina, he was injured in a serious car crash and had to have extensive surgery done particularly on his hands. All in all, Laughlin had to undergo 13 operations en route to his recovery.

After red-shirting that year as the Tar Heels' junior co-captain, he came back to swim competitively for two more years, captaining the Tar Heels both seasons and become a scorer again at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships.

Laughlin is a 1997 alumnus of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md. He earned a swimming scholarship to UNC that year and will graduate this Sunday with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and economics.