Three Jayhawks Make 2011 Conference USA Rowing All-Academic Team
May 12, 2011
LAWRENCE, Kan. – For the second-straight year, Kansas tied for the most student-athletes on the Conference USA Rowing All-Academic Team with three selections of the 15 honored, including two rowers who were selected unanimously, it was announced by C-USA on Thursday.
Seniors Lauren Pollmiller and Nicole Schneider and junior Melanie Luthi all earned the distinction as voted on by the league’s sports information directors. Luthi and Schneider were two of six student-athletes selected unanimously for the All-Academic Team with grade-point averages both greater than 3.9. Schools could not vote for their own student-athletes. This marks Schneider’s second selection to the C-USA Rowing All-Academic Team.
“I’m really pleased for the three who were selected,” said Kansas head coach Rob Catloth. “Three out of 15 people from nine schools is pretty exciting. We’re really proud of the work they do in the classroom and out on the water.”
Pollmiller, a senior from Lenexa, Kan., has been a member of the Second Varsity Eight all season for Kansas and has a 3.81 grade-point average in accounting. Also a native of Lenexa, Kan., Schneider has been a member of the First Varsity Eight all season and has maintained a 3.94 cumulative GPA in civil engineering. Schneider is one of only two student-athletes to make the All-Academic Team in each year of its existence. A junior from Junction City, Kan., Luthi has been a member of the First Varsity Eight all three years she has competed in rowing and has maintained a 3.91 grade-point average in mechanical engineering and business.
KU and the three other Big 12 rowing schools – Kansas State, Oklahoma and Texas – have joined Conference USA in rowing in anticipation of the NCAA’s introduction of automatic bids to the NCAA Rowing Championship in 2013. A conference must contain at least six teams to be eligible for automatic-qualification to an NCAA championship. The four Big 12 teams, and Tennessee and Alabama from the Southeastern Conference, are now affiliate members of Conference USA in the sport of rowing, joining C-USA schools Tulsa, SMU and Central Florida.
Kansas rowing will compete in the Conference USA Championship this Saturday, May 14, in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
