Kautzer earns NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Amanda Kautzer of the Michigan Tech Nordic ski team is a winter sport recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Kautzer will receive a $10,000 scholarship to be applied toward the graduate degree program of her choice.

Kautzer was a three-time qualifier at the NCAA Skiing Championships. She received the NCAA's Elite 90 award in 2020, having the best grade-point average of anyone at the Championships with her 4.0 in biomedical engineering. She was a 2019 Google Cloud Division II Academic All-American and has been on the USCSCA All-Academic Team three times. Kautzer was a Central Regional Champion in 2019 in the classic and placed 17th at the 2019 NCAA Championship in the classic. She is a three-time All-CCSA selection and three-time All-Central Region finisher.

Kautzer has also performed on the world stage at the 2020 U23 World Ski Championships in Germany and competed at the Junior World Championships three times from 2015-17 as a biathlete.

As a cross country runner for the Huskies, Kautzer raced at the 2019 NCAA Championships and received USTFCCCA All-Academic honors. She was a three-time GLIAC All-Academic Excellence team member and received the team's 2018 Scholastic Achievement Award. She competed in five races in 2019, leading the Huskies at the Blugold Invite and placing one spot outside of an All-GLIAC finish at the conference championship.

Kautzer was a captain on both teams and is only the third Michigan Tech female student-athlete to compete at the NCAA Championships in both cross country and Nordic skiing.

Kautzer also received the GLIAC Pat Riepma Postgraduate Scholarship. She plans to attend Michigan Tech in the fall to pursue a master's degree in mechanical engineering. Bill Sproule nominated her for both scholarships.

The NCAA awards up to 126 postgraduate scholarships annually. The scholarships are awarded to student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are at least in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition.

The one-time non-renewable scholarships of $10,000 are awarded three times a year corresponding to each sport season (fall, winter, and spring) and include nominees from all three divisions. Each sports season there are 21 scholarships available for men and 21 scholarships available for women for use in an accredited graduate program.

All former student-athletes who earned an undergraduate degree from an NCAA member school are eligible to be nominated by that school for an NCAA graduate degree scholarship, regardless of when they received their undergraduate degree.

Awardees are chosen by the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Committee, which includes faculty athletics representatives, athletics administrators, and a conference commissioner.

Other former Huskies to receive the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship were Mariah Sherman (volleyball) in fall 2019, Thomas Bye (Nordic skiing) in winter 2019, and Kirsen Hudak (soccer) in fall 2017.