Austgulen receives Colonial Athletic Association Scholar-Athlete Award

Kristine Austgulen, VCU Women’s Basketball’s senior forward, is being honored as one of the five Colonial Athletic Association Scholar-Athlete Award recipients for last season. To be nominated for the award, athletes must be starters or play a key role on their team and have a minimum of a 3.20 grade point average. The CAA nominates one athlete from each sport and the sports information directors from all CAA institutions vote on the final five.

Austgulen is no stranger to receiving athletic and academic awards. She was named 2002-03 Verizon Academic All-America Team Member of the Year, maintaining a 4.0 GPA. She became the first VCU women’s player ever to earn the CAA Player of the Year award. Austgulen was also named 2003 Richmond Times-Dispatch state Woman Player of the Year. The Norwegian-born basketball player was also named to the conference All-Academic team this year and has earned the Dean Ehlers Leadership Award as well, averaging 18.7 points per game and 10.7 rebounds, which are both CAA highs. This past season Austgulen earned a conference season high of 14 double-doubles and currently holds 11 season and 10 career records at VCU.

Other recipients of the award were Adam Hess from the College of William & Mary for men’s basketball, Tiago Barreira from UNC-Wilmington for men’s swimming and diving, Jennifer Irby of Towson for women’s swimming and diving and Pat Diaz from James Madison University for wrestling.