Cutchins earns two academic awards
Published 10:23 pm Tuesday, June 16, 2009
James Madison University rising senior goalkeeper Kelsey Cutchins (Lakeland) added two more prestigious honors to her long list of academic and athletic awards for the 2008-09 school year.
Cutchins has been named an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America selection by the College Sports Information Directors of America and the Colonial Athletic Association Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Cutchins was selected as a second-team Academic All-American in the women’s at-large category after being chosen to as a third team honoree as a sophomore.
The ESPN The Magazine women’s at-large group include the sports of bowling, crew, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming, tennis, and water polo.
Cutchins’ two Academic All-American awards give her two of the three in JMU field hockey’s history.
Cutchins is the first JMU athlete ever to earn CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors for an award that dates back to the 2002-03 academic year. She is already the two-time reigning CAA Scholar-Athlete for field hockey as well as JMU’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The psychology major with a minor in geographic sciences has been named to the JMU President’s List all six semesters and has been honored all three seasons as a JMU Athletic Director Scholar-Athlete, a CAA Commissioner’s Academic Award winner, and a National Field Hockey Coaches Association National Academic Squad member.
Athletically, Cutchins is a two-time All-American, two-time Colonial and state player of the year and a member of the United States under-21 national team. In April, Cutchins was named JMU’s Female Co-Athlete of the Year.
Cutchins excelled on the field in 2008, leading the nation and setting a JMU season record with a 0.72 goals against average. She also led the nation with a .824 save percentage while recording 70 saves. JMU’s 18-3 record was the best winning percentage in program history and the 0.52 shutouts per game also led the nation. Cutchins’ 0.96 career GAA is currently the JMU record and ranks 20th in NCAA history. She also sits ninth in save percentage (.777), 10th in saves (199), and third in minutes (4,139:03).
JMU has won CAA titles and reached the NCAA Tournament in each of Cutchins’ three seasons. She is 49-13 in goal in those three seasons. Cutchins has played every minute of JMU’s six CAA tournament games during the last three years and has allowed one goal in 422 total minutes of CAA tournament play (0.17 GAA).