GOLDEN EAGLES BAUMGARTNER, RICHARD EARN PSAC SPRING TOP 10 AWARD

            Clarion University’s Lisa Baumgartner (West Middlesex/Wilmington) and Erin Richard (Erie/McDowell) were recently honored as PSAC Spring Top Ten Award winners.

            The Top Ten Awards, selected by the PSAC sports information directors, recognize student-athletes who distinguish themselves in the classroom as well as in the arena of competition and are awarded in each of the sports seasons: fall, winter and spring.

            Baumgartner, a junior on the women’s tennis team, carries a perfect 4.0 GPA in Speech Pathology and Audiology.

During the spring season, she carried a 7-4 singles record, including a 6-2 mark at her primary position of No. 2. In doubles play, she went 18-4 over the course of the year which included a 9-2 record during the spring. Baumgartner was chosen to receive the Western Region Sportsmanship Award given by the International Tennis Association. Some career highlights include being selected first-team PSAC-West in 2006 and helping the 2006 squad win the school’s Carlson Cup for best team overall GPA.  

            Richard, a junior on the women’s track and field team, carries a 3.81 GPA in Elementary Education and was recently named a first-team District 2 College Division ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District women’s track and field and cross country.

            At this year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships, she was one of three PSAC athletes to earn multiple All-America honors by placing third in the 5,000 and fourth in the 10,000. The recently named PSAC Women’s Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year, Richard won PSAC titles in the 3,000 and 5,000 at this year’s championships and owned the league’s top times in the 3,000 (9:56.68), the 5,000 (16:41.39) and the 10,000 (35:38.90). She was also an All-American during the 2007 indoor season with a seventh-place finish in the 5,000 while winning the PSAC title in the Mile. Her indoor achievements earned her the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Indoor East Region Athlete of the Year Award.

            Last season, Erin qualified for the outdoor NCAA’s in two events after winning PSAC outdoor titles in the 1,500 and 3,000 a year ago giving her seven overall indoor and outdoor PSAC titles when combined with her 2006 indoor titles in the Distance Medley Relay and the 3,000.

A 2006 All-Region cross country runner as well, Richard owns five Clarion indoor school records (1,000, Mile, 3,000, 5,000, Distance Medley Relay) and four outdoor school records (1,500, 3,000, 5,000, 10,000). She is also a multiple-time USTFCCA All-Academic award winner.

NOTES – To be a candidate for the Top Ten Awards, a student-athlete must have achieved a minimum 3.25 cumulative GPA and mist be a starter of key reserve with legitimate athletic credentials. Only student-athletes from the spring sports season are eligible for the Spring Top Ten Awards. Those sports are: baseball, softball, women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, men’s and women’s tennis and golf … Baumgartner and Richard became the third and fourth Clarion athletes to win PSAC Top Ten Award during the 2006-2007 school year joining Ashley Grimm (women’s basketball) and Jamie Wolf (women’s swimming and diving), who were Winter Top Ten Award winners. Wolf also won the PSAC’s Pete Nevins Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year award given to the top female scholar-athlete in the PSAC this year.

Lisa Baumgartner

Erin Richard