BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Senior swimmer Keegan Walsh and senior equestrian Western rider Miller Lantis were announced as the University of Georgia’s winners of the SEC Brad Davis Community Service Award Thursday morning.
Each of the SEC’s 14 member institution select a male and female student-athlete for the award, with the overall Brad Davis Community Service Leader of the Year announced later this month. Each school winner will receive a $5,000 post-graduate scholarship provided by the conference.
The SEC Community Service Post-Graduate Scholarship is named for former Associate Commissioner Brad Davis. Davis succumbed to cancer on March 2, 2006. He had been a member of the SEC staff since 1988, first serving as an assistant commissioner until 1994 when he was promoted to associate commissioner.
Keegan Walsh
Throughout his four years at Georgia, Keegan Walsh has been a valuable member of both the swimming team and the Athens community. In the pool, he reached the NCAA Championships in 2021, competing in both backstroke events. He scored at three straight SEC Championships, including a seventh-place finish in the 200 backstroke in 2021. He also ranks seventh all-time in program history in the 200 backstroke, setting the mark at last year’s Bulldog Invitational.
With his performance in the water and in the classroom, he has been named to three CSCAA Scholar All-America teams. He has been named a Presidential Scholar and a Dean’s List honoree, along with placement on the J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Honor Roll every semester and the SEC Academic Honor Roll in all three seasons. He was also named the team’s Scholar-Athlete Award winner in 2019-20.
Out of the water, Walsh serves as the co-president of the UGA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and a member of the UGAAA L.E.A.D. Leadership Academy. He has helped organize Georgia voting efforts in 2020, assisted with the Salvation Army, and mentored fellow students with the UGA Finance Society. For his work, he was named to the 2022 SEC Swimming & Diving Community Service Team.
Miller Lantis
With her bubbly personality and genuine heart for others, Miller Lantis goes above and beyond her call of duty to the UGA and Athens communities. She exceled in the classroom, being named to the UGA and SEC Academic Honor Rolls and tabbed with AHPA NCEA Academic Honors. She has been given the equestrian team’s Philanthropic Achiever award for volunteering nearly 20 hours of community service.
Lantis has been involved with the Clarke County Mentors Program, sharing knowledge and life experiences with young children, and offering encouragement and friendship. She volunteers at the Athens Heart Center and Specialty Clinics, the Hurley Medical Center Foundation, and Hometown Heroes and Rivals. In addition, she is a member of the UGA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Representative and UGA’s Phi Upsilon Omicron, which is an honor society in the field of family and consumer sciences, that places a strong emphasis on serving fellow students in need and the surrounding local community.
Lantis is applying to medical school with hopes to pursue a career in medicine, after learning the true meaning of altruism from her community service involvement which has shaped the type of physician she aspires to become.
