USC’s Tina Graudina, Earnie Sears III Named Tom Hansen Medal Winners

Women’s Beach Volleyball | June 22, 2022

SAN FRANCISCO – USC beach volleyball All-American Tina Graudina (Jurmala, Latvia) and men’s track and field All-American Ernie Sears III (Palmdale, Calif./Bishop Alemany HS) were each awarded the 2021-22 Pac-12 Tom Hansen Conference Medal, the Pac-12 announced on Wednesday, June 22.
 
A Conference Medal is awarded annually to each member institution’s outstanding senior male and female student-athletes based on the exhibition of the greatest combination of performance and achievement in scholarship, athletics, and leadership.
 
Conference Medal winners have been named every year since the 1960-61 academic year. In 2009, the Pac-12 renamed the award the Tom Hansen Conference Medal in honor of Tom Hansen, who retired at the end of June 2009 following 26 years of service as Commissioner of the Pac-10.
 
Graudina is one of the most decorated collegiate beach volleyball athletes in the short history of the sport. She was a 2020 Olympian and was part of the first-ever Latvian women’s beach volleyball pair to compete in the Olympics. She is a two-time NCAA champion (2021, ’22) and a two-time Pac-12 champion (2019, ’22) and one of only four student-athletes ever to garner AVCA All-America first-team laurels four times in her career. She and partner Hailey Harward were chosen as the 2022 AVCA National Pair of the Year. Graudina was named Pac-12 Player of the Year three times and was part of the Pac-12’s Pair of the Year with three different partners. She holds a record-setting eight Pac-12 Pair of the Week awards, is a four-time Pac-12 All-Conference Team and All-Tournament Team choice and earned her third NCAA All-Tournament Team award in 2022. She served as a USC captain in her senior season, was named to the 2021 Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll, was a member of the 2019 Pac-12 All-Academic second team and received the Trojaneer Diamond Award as the female student-athlete who has brought the most fame and distinction to the university. She is pursuing a graduate degree in communication management after earning her undergraduate degree in political science. Graudina has used her platform to assist in a relief effort campaign for Ukraine with Latvian Beach Volleyball National Team.
 
Sears III completed both a bachelor’s degree in communication and…