By Kelly Tuckwiller for MSNsportsNET.com
May 28, 2009

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Four members of the West Virginia University rowing team have been named National Scholar Athletes by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association for the 2008-09 academic year.

Rising seniors Kimberly Benda, Brett Krumholz and Kathryn Walsh, and rising junior Rachel Viglianco, have all received the honor.

Qualifications for this award include a minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA, while also racing in 75 percent of the team's top boats during the spring racing season.

“I'm very pleased to coach such outstanding student-athletes,” Coach Jimmy King said. “The time and energy they choose to put into this sport along with the myriad of other activities they take on makes their academic accomplishments that much more noteworthy. I commend Kim, Katie, Brett and Rachel for the successes they have achieved and thank them for representing our program so well!”

Benda receives the honor for the second-straight season as an animal and nutritional sciences major. She has made the dean's list each of her six semesters at WVU, and has also earned honors on the Athletic Director's Academic Honor Roll and the President's list. The Comox, B.C., native is a three-year member of the varsity squad and current captain for the WVU rowing team.

Krumholz, an exercise physiology major, completed her second season with the Mountaineers as a member of the Varsity 8+ boat. The Reading, Pa., native is a dean’s and President’s list student, and was recently awarded with the President’s Volunteer Service Award given to students who have completed more than 100 volunteer and service-learning hours.

Viglianco, a secondary education and Italian major, spent this season as a member of the Varsity 8+ boat. The St. Albans, W.Va., native has been on the dean’s and President’s List all four semesters at WVU and was the recipient of the Virginia Butts Sturm Undergraduate Scholarship, awarded to an outstanding sophomore English major. She was also given the WV Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership (HOBY) Sara Gwisdalla Award for most service hours, accumulating 333 hours in a span of one year.

Walsh, an accounting major, contributed this season as a member of the Varsity 4+ boat that placed fourth in the grand finals at the 2009 Knecht Cup on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J. The Kensington, N.H., native is a current dean’s and President’s list student, and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma international honor society.

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