Cullowhee, N.C. –  Three former Catamount student-athletes across a trio of sports comprise the 2024 induction class into Western Carolina's Athletics Hall of Fame, it was announced this week. Matt Cook (men's golf, 2004-08), Jennifer Gardner (women's basketball, 2001-05), and Manteo Mitchell (track & field, 2005-09), who were each named to the Southern Conference's 100th Anniversary Team back in 2021, make up the 35th class to be enshrined as selected by the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame committee.
 
Gardner is the 13th individual women's basketball player to be inducted into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame all-time, while Mitchell is the 10th track & field standout honored to date. Cook becomes just the third Catamount men's golfer to earn Hall of Fame status – and the first since 2009.
 
Western Carolina's 2024 Athletics Hall of Fame weekend is scheduled for Nov. 15-16, 2024, surrounding the Catamounts' final home football game against Southern Conference foe VMI at 1 p.m. Complete details of the weekend's ceremonies will be released closer to the event.
 
Matt Cook (2004-08) helped change the trajectory of Catamount men's golf during his four-year career, becoming one of the first faces of the WCU golf program and helping put Cullowhee on the golfing world map. In short, Cook was the first Catamount men's golfer to compete in an NCAA regional, totaling three postseason appearances in his career – twice as an individual in 2006 and 2007, and with the team's at-large berth in 2008.
 
A Western North Carolina product out of Murphy, Cook posted 27 Top 10 finishes during his Catamount career including 19 times finishing inside the Top Five in tournament play. Among those 19 Top Fives were 15 podium – or top three – finishes and he claimed individual medalist honors nine times, twice winning the Southern Conference Men's Golf Championship in 2006 at The Links at Stono Ferry in Hollywood, S.C., and in 2008 at the Country Club of South Carolina in Florence.
 
During his four-year career, Cook earned an unprecedented – and league record – nine SoCon Men's Golfer of the Month plaudits. He was WCU's first, four-time All-Southern Conference honoree and became only the second Catamount men's golfer to garner SoCon Player of the Year accolades in 2006. That same year, Cook became the first of just two Catamount men's golfers all-time to reach GolfStat's No. 1 ranking. Additionally, Cook was also WCU's first golfer all-time to earn a Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) All-America selection in 2008 as an honorable mention, coupling the national recognition with a PING All-Region selection from the same organization.
 
Cook closed his Catamount career with the top three single-season scoring averages in program history and continues to hold three of the Top 10 seasonal stroke averages in program history. He established a school record in 2006-07 by averaging 71.81 over 26 rounds including a then school-record low individual 18-hole score of 65 at the Frank Landrey Invitational on his way to the program-low 36-hole score of 132 (65-67) that stands today. Cook just missed his record season-low average the following year, posting a season-scoring average of 72.00 across 34 rounds including NCAA regional play in 2007-08.
 
All told, Cook finished his time in Cullowhee atop the career scoring average charts with an average of 72.11 over 107 combined rounds in his four years for the Purple & Gold. His mark currently ranks third in the school ledgers – but remains second among golfers with over 100 career rounds, trailing only JT Poston (71.73). He is also just one of eight on record to eclipse the century mark with career rounds played for WCU.
 
Cook joins former Catamount men's golfers Brett D. Miller and former coach Johnny Wike as the third representative from the golf program in the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
A game-changing post player, Jennifer Gardner (2001-05) was at the center of transforming the Western Carolina women's basketball program and keying some of the most successful seasons for the Catamounts in the early 2000s. Gardner helped WCU to a No. 2 seed in the 2002-03 conference tournament, spurred the squad to the program's first-ever SoCon finals appearance and a runner-up showing in 2004, and led WCU to the program's first-ever conference tournament championship and NCAA tournament berth in 2005.
 
The 2003-04 Catamounts entered the SoCon tournament as the No. 6 seed and played four games in four days to advance into the title match with perennial power, Chattanooga. Along the way, WCU shut down 11th-seeded Wofford, 60-38, before upsetting both third-seeded Davidson (66-58) and regular-season runner-up Furman, 75-66. WCU ran into the league's regular-season champion and conference player of the year as the Cinderella story came up short in the finals, 86-68.
 
Gardner scored in double figures three times in the '04 tournament run, twice ranking among WCU's leaders in scoring with a pair of double-doubles. She tied Tiffany Hamm for the team-best 20 points with 15 rebounds and three steals against the Paladins in the semis before pacing the Catamounts with 16 points and 12 boards in the finals against the Lady Mocs. All told, Gardner scored 58 points in the tournament run, averaging 14.5 points per game in landing on the SoCon All-Tournament Team.
 
Spurred by the near-miss in the 2004 tournament, Gardner led the Catamounts and first-year head coach Kellie Harper to the program's first championship the following season in 2004-05. WCU started the season with an in-season tournament championship at the North Star Invitational in Fairbanks, Alaska, with Gardner landing on the five-member all-tournament team.
 
With WCU again seeded sixth entering the 2005 SoCon postseason tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn., Gardner would not let the Catamounts be denied for a second straight season. Playing each game with a red lipstick kiss on her cheek planted there during pregame by her mother, Gardner scored double figures in all four games with a pair of double-doubles. She set a total of six SoCon tournament records along the way, scoring 106 combined points on 33 field goals and 37 made free throws. She also battled through a gutsy 45-point, 13-rebound performance in the double-overtime victory over Georgia Southern, scoring the game-winning bucket with 16 seconds remaining in the second extra session that landed WCU in the NCAA postseason and her atop the podium as the tournament's Most Outstanding Performer, her second All-SoCon Tournament team honor.
 
With Harper at the helm, the Catamounts earned a date with Tennessee in Knoxville in the program's first postseason trip.
 
Gardner finished her four seasons in Cullowhee with 117 games played and 91 starts. She ranked seventh overall in scoring with 1,362 career points at the time of her graduation, a mark that continues to rank her eighth all-time at present. She is also one of just 11 Catamounts all-time to rank in WCU's 1,000 Point / 500 Rebound club, ranking fourth in the program's ledgers with 890 career rebounds. She averaged 11.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game while wearing the Purple & Gold.
 
Among Western Carolina University's rich history and tradition of track & field, one name seemingly rises to the top of any conversation – and this year, that conversation includes induction into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame. One of WCU's most widely and best-known former track student-athletes, Manteo Mitchell (2005-09) will forever be enshrined with this year's class.
 
Mitchell rose to fame as a track & field star at WCU where he was an astonishing 32-time All-Southern Conference selection scattered between multiple on the track between both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Part of five SoCon Championship teams, Mitchell was also a four-time SoCon Most Valuable Performer. Carrying the Purple & Gold colors, Mitchell advanced to seven NCAA championship competitions and was a seven-time All-Region selection.
 
During his collegiate career, Mitchell also garnered seven SoCon Track Athlete of the Week honors including three during the indoor season and four times outdoors. He was also thrice dubbed the SoCon's Track Athlete of the Month, earning recognition during the January 2009 indoor season and twice in the outdoor portion of the schedule in March and April of 2009.
 
A product of Mooresboro, N.C., Mitchell continues to hold the school records in both the men's indoor (21.23, 2007) and outdoor (20.73, 2009) 200-meter dash, as well as the outdoor 400-meter dash (46.00, 2009). He was also on the benchmark-setting 4x100-meter relay team in 2008 at the NCAA Outdoor East Preliminaries (39.59). He remains part of the top three best 4x100-meter relay times in program history.
 
Well-known around the state, conference, and region for his exploits on the track, Mitchell burst onto the national scene in 2012. He won a gold medal in the men's 4x400-meter relay at the IAAF World Indoor Championships before later becoming WCU's first United States Olympian by finishing fifth in the 400-meter dash (44.96) at the Olympic trials.
 
He furthered his national lore in the 2012 Olympic games in London where he was a part of the silver-medal winning 4x400-meter relay team. In the preliminary round, Mitchell suffered a broken bone in his left leg – but fought through to complete his leg of the relay race, helping Team USA to the fastest time ever run in the prelims, tying for first in their heat and advancing to the next round of competition. Mitchell's courageous story was later listed as one of the favorites of President Barack Obama to come out of the 2012 games as the Olympians visited the White House.
 
Continuing to train in Cullowhee through 2016, Mitchell remains a part of Team USA with his focus shifting from the track to the icy runs of the bobsled as he vies to become a two-time Olympian in different events. Back in December 2022, Mitchell helped his four-man bobsleigh team win gold at the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Foundation (IBSF) World Push Championships near Lake Placid, N.Y. Not only did Mitchell and his teammates strike gold, but they also set the Ice House facility record of 4.84 in the push, which counts the start through the first 50 meters of the run rather than sliding down the full course.
 
A two-time graduate of WCU – undergraduate in 2009 and Master's degree in 2012 – Mitchell eyes becoming just the 12th United States Olympian to compete in both the summer and winter games with just seven previously medaling at both. He would also be the first African American male to accomplish this tremendous feat.
 
Mitchell and his wife Christina have two children, a son Khi, and a daughter Melody. He also credits his mother, Ms. Dianna Ellis, his grandparents Betty and Ray Mitchell, and his brother Chazstein for much of his continued success.
 
Founded in 1990, the Western Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame pays tribute to those superior Catamount student-athletes, coaches, administrators, and alumni who have made major contributions to the honor and fame of WCU and Catamount Athletics. Including this year's induction class, the WCU has enshrined 134 individuals, six athletic teams, 11 Patron Award recipients, and two individuals recognized for career achievements since its creation.
 
To be considered for induction into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame, nominations must be submitted in writing to the Hall of Fame committee where they are kept on file for five years before the nomination needs to be refreshed to remain active. A file for every nominee is kept and includes items such as biographical information and letters of support that are considered by the committee during the voting process.
 
Each spring, the committee convenes to vote upon a list of nominees that are approved by the Hall's executive committee, which vets those nominated against the criteria put forth by the Athletics Hall of Fame Constitution. The appropriate nomination forms are available at CatamountSports.com as an online form and as a PDF.