Williams Earns NCAA Elite 89 Award
November 22, 2014 02:07 PM | General
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| Kelly Williams accepts her Elite 89 Award at the NCAA Championship Saturday. |
| Photo by Tony Campbell |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Junior runner Kelly Williams of the No. 7-ranked West Virginia University cross country team earned the NCAA Division I Women’s Cross Country Elite 89 Award, announced today by the NCAA.
The award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s 89 championships.
“To be recognized as the premier student-athlete in the sport of cross country is an honor that represents how very special Kelly Williams is to West Virginia University,” said coach Sean Cleary. “We are all very proud of the commitment that WVU provides for our student athletes. This is another example of our student-athletes taking advantage of the opportunities presented to them.”
Williams maintains a perfect 4.0 while majoring in strategic communications. The Chesterland, Ohio, native has been named to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team all three seasons as a Mountaineer. She also garnered 2012 and 2013 USTFCCCA Division I Women’s Cross Country All-Academic distinctions.
Williams competes in cross country and track at WVU, earning All-America status in the one mile as a freshman during the 2012-2013 track season. In cross country, she was named to the All-Mid-Atlantic Region team year ago and competed at her second NCAA Cross Country Championship earlier today.
“Being a student-athlete with a 4.0 grade point average is an amazing accomplishment,” Cleary said. “Being an All-American in the mile is a distinction that very few can claim and being an All-American in the mile who holds a 4.0 GPA is simply astonishing.”
To be eligible a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore in academic and athletics standing, and in at least his or her second year of competition (in any sport) at his or her current institution.
The student-athlete must be an active member on the roster and a member of the designated squad size for the championship site, and each student-athlete is only eligible to win the award once per academic year, even if he/she participates in more than one sport.
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