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The Student-Athlete: Rose-Hulman has Stellar History of Success in Class & Sport
July 15, 2011
By Kevin Lanke
Assistant Athletic Director for Communications
As students at Rose-Hulman, their days began early and ended late.
Nick Race and Liz Evans mastered the delicate balance of
maintaining near-perfect grade point averages while also earning
national and regional honors in their sports.
Race, a four-year soccer player, received Capital One Academic
All-American accolades in 2010, continuing the college's 25-year
legacy of success in the classroom and athletics.
Meanwhile, Evans is the 2011 NCAA Division III indoor and
outdoor high jump national champion and a three-time regional field
athlete of the year.
The term "student-athlete" is taken very seriously at Rose-Hulman,
with 92 current and former athletes being named Academic
All-Americans. The institution ranks sixth nationally among all
North American colleges and first among NCAA Division III colleges
by having at least one honoree in each of the past 26 years. Two
athletes were named Academic All-American of the Year-baseball
player Kevin Kluemper in 1991 and pole vaulter Ryan Loftus in
1998.
Student-athletes having a minimum 3.3 grade point average (out
of 4.0) are eligible to be nominated for the Academic All-American
team in their sport. There's a University Division for NCAA
Division I institutions and a College Division for the more than
800 schools in the NCAA Division II, III (like Rose-Hulman), NAIA,
Canadian and junior college ranks.
"The key reason I chose Rose-Hulman was the chance to get both
an outstanding education and the chance to continue playing
competitive soccer," said Race, a 2011 biomedical engineering
graduate with a 3.95 grade point average.
Like most Rose-Hulman students, Race's days started shortly
after sunrise and were filled with 18 intensive classroom hours
each week. Late-afternoon soccer practice filled four weekdays
throughout the fall, then there was a quick dinner before finding
time to study for the next day's classes or tests-getting around to
homework at 2 a.m. the next day. The soccer team had two matches
each weekend during the season, starting in late August-before the
school year begins-until early November. He also managed to find
the time to serve as president for the Biomedical Engineering
Society and the Triangle fraternity.
Race's lofty academic credentials resulted in his acceptance to
the Indiana University School of Medicine's MD/PhD Medical
Scientist Training Program.
Meanwhile, Evans's "average" day during the track and field season
includes "breakfast, class, lunch, more class, workouts, dinner,
and studying," she says. Evans also earned Academic All-American
honors after compiling a 3.5 GPA as a mathematics and electrical
engineering double major.