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Posted: Mar 11, 2020

Kautzer wins Elite 90 Award for NCAA Skiing Championships

Kautzer wins Elite 90 Award for NCAA Skiing Championships

HOUGHTON, Mich. – Michigan Tech's Amanda Kautzer is the recipient of the Elite 90 award for the 2020 NCAA Skiing Championships. Kautzer, a senior from Plymouth, Minnesota, holds a 4.0 grade-point average in biomedical engineering. She received the award Tuesday evening at NCAA Championship Banquet on the campus of Montana State University-Bozeman.

The Elite 90, an award founded by the NCAA, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among her peers. The Elite 90 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's championships.

"This is truly our proudest moment of Amanda," Tech coaches Kristen Monahan Smith and Tom Smith said. "For her to receive this award in her senior season, maintaining a 4.0 in biomedical engineering is a testament to her absolute tenacity as a student-athlete! She has worked as hard for this achievement as anything. We couldn't hold back our tears of joy in celebration of her achievement, there is no one more deserving of this honor than Amanda!"

Kautzer will participate in her third straight NCAA Championship on Thursday and Saturday. Last season she was named a Google Cloud Division II Academic All-American, won the NCAA Central Region's classic individual title and finished 15th in the classic at the NCAA Championship. Kautzer has received multiple all-region and all-conference honors in her career with the Huskies.

"Academics have always been a top priority that I've put seemingly endless work into, and it's a huge honor to have that effort recognized at an event of this caliber," Kautzer said. "I'm so lucky to have had amazing coaches that support my academic goals and are just as (if not more) excited about this achievement as I am. Our team values academic excellence alongside top skiing performance, and it was really cool to hear that support from fellow teammates in the form of the loudest cheering I've heard for an Elite 90 award at this event."

Eligible student-athletes are sophomores or above who have participated in their sport for at least two years with their school. They must be an active member of the team, traveling and a designated member of the squad size at the championship. All ties are broken by the number of credits completed.

Kautzer and the Huskies will race Thursday in the skate and Saturday in the classic. Racing begins both days at Noon Eastern. NCAA.com will stream the events live for free.

Past Michigan Tech recipients of the Elite 90 award are women's basketball players Sarah Stream (2009-10) and Angela Guisfredi (2010-11) and track & field student-athlete Jani Lane (2014-15).

For more information on the Elite 90 award winners, log on to NCAA.com/elite-90.