A Baker University graduate and employee, known for her talent as an athlete and a scholar, was killed in a two-vehicle head-on collision early Saturday south of Lawrence.

Renee L. Sudduth, 23, Lawrence, became the latest fatality victim claimed by U.S. Highway 59, one of Douglas County’s narrow, twisting highways with a deadly reputation.

The accident also injured Zane Conner, 22, Paola, who was taken by helicopter ambulance to University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City, Kan., Douglas County Sheriff Rick Trapp said.

His condition was not released because of hospital privacy rules, and officials there declined to confirm or deny whether Conner was a patient.

Sudduth, who graduated from Baker University in Baldwin last spring, was working in the university’s admissions office recruiting high school students.

While a student at Baker, Sudduth played volleyball and was on the track team, competing in discus and shot put, athletic director Dan Harris said.

She excelled in the classroom and earned a John McClendon Scholarship to attend graduate school, which she intended to do next year, university officials said.

“She was just a spark plug — I don’t know how else to describe her,” said Annette Galluzzi, vice president of marketing and communications at Baker. “She had a lot of energy and a lot of desire to be the best person she could be.”

Harris agreed. “She was a pretty talented girl.”

The accident was reported at 2:16 a.m. after it occurred on the highway about 10 miles south of Lawrence, or a mile south of the Baldwin junction of Highway 59 and U.S. Highway 56, Trapp said.

Conner was driving a pickup truck southbound on the highway, and Sudduth was northbound in a car, Trapp said. The cause of the investigation is still to be determined, he said.

Extra sheriff’s officers were on patrol Friday night and early Saturday conducting patrols targeting drunk drivers. The first officers arrived about a minute after receiving the report, Trapp said.

When asked if alcohol was a factor in the accident, Trapp would only say that all possibilities are being investigated and that information would be forwarded to the district attorney’s office. The sheriff’s accident investigation team was called out and worked at the scene until about 7:30 a.m., he said.

Baker President Daniel N. Lambert issued a statement expressing the university’s “profound sorrow” upon learning of Sudduth’s death.

“This tragic accident fills us with sadness, and we offer our heartfelt condolences to her family, friends and co-workers,” Lambert said.

Sudduth graduated from Washburn Rural High School near Topeka and lived in Harveyville. Her mother, Kathy Sudduth, said Renee had always been interested in sports and was a National Honor Society member.

Renee Sudduth earned her bachelor’s degree at Baker in physical education with an emphasis in sports administration. She was considering using her McClendon scholarship to attend Wichita State University to study sports management, her mother said.

“God gave me an angel, and for some reason he saw fit to take her back,” Kathy Sudduth said. “I’m glad I got to know her for 23 years.”

Highway 59 has long had a deadly reputation because much of the route from Lawrence to Ottawa is narrow or twisting. The Kansas Highway Patrol conducted intensive air and ground patrols earlier this fall in an effort to increase safety on the highway.

Kansas Department of Transportation figures show the highway south of Lawrence has an accident rate 25 percent higher than similar highways elsewhere in Kansas. From 1995 to 1999, the stretch of road had 376 wrecks that left 193 people injured and 11 dead.

The highway is similar to two other highways that extend out of Lawrence and which also have seen a good number of serious accidents over the years, including U.S. Highway 40 west of Lawrence.

And U.S. Highway 24-59 north of town was the location of two fatality accidents in November.