Thursday, May 26, 2022

PORTLAND, Ore. – On the eve of the Division II Rowing Championships, Western Washington junior Clarice Ruhlin-Hicks has been named the winner of the prestigious NCAA Elite 90 Award.

The Elite 90 Award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the finals site for each NCAA championship. Eligible student-athletes must be sophomore academic standing or greater and must have participated in a sport for at least two years with their school. Ties are broken by the number of credits completed.

Ruhlin-Hicks, who has a 4.00 GPA as a political science major, has been a mainstay in the Vikings varsity 8+ throughout the 2022 season. She was a member of the crew that won the D2/D2/Club title at the WIRA Championships and the varsity 8+ final at the GNAC Championships. She will be in the No. 5 seat for the crew at the NCAA Championships.

In addition to the Elite 90 Award, Ruhlin-Hicks was named First Team All-GNAC after she helped lead Western Washington to the conference championship. She was also named to the CoSIDA Division II Academic All-District 8 At-Large Team.

Ruhlin-Ricks is the seventh GNAC athlete to win the Elite 90 Award since its inception for the 2010-11 championship season. Past winners include Northwest Nazarene’s Ben Johnson (baseball, 2021) Alaska Anchorage’s Marie Ries (women’s indoor track and field, 2020) and Yvonne Jeschke (women’s cross country, 2019); Western Oregon’s Tyler Jones (men’s cross country, 2018), Central Washington’s Alexa Shindruk (women’s cross country, 2018) and Seattle Pacific’s Suzie Strickler (women’s cross country, 2010).

Ruhlin-Hicks is the fifth student-athlete from a rowing program now affiliated with the GNAC to win the Elite 90 Award. She joins fellow Vikings Megan Northey, who won in 2012, Cal Poly Humboldt’s Mariah Smither (2015 & 2016) and Central Oklahoma’s Trista Cripe (2017 & 2018) and Bailee Thomas (2019).