Three Named to Academic All-District Team

NORMAN, Okla. -- Three University of Oklahoma student-athletes have been named to the Capital One Academic All-District women's at-large first team, as presented by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Rowers Kelsey Witten and Nicole Furmanek were joined on the team by golfer Ellen Mueller. It marks Witten's second selection to the first team. It was a first-time first-team selection for Mueller and a first-time selection for Furmanek.

All three will advance to the national ballot for consideration as Academic All-Americans. Witten was a first-team Academic All-American in 2010.

To be eligible for the team, a student-athlete must carry a minimum 3.30 cumulative GPA, be at least a sophomore in athletics and academics eligibility and be a starter or key reserve.

This award is just the latest in a recent string for Witten, who is a graduate student in Adult and Higher Education from Springfield, Mo. She has been the coxswain for OU's first varsity eight for two seasons. Her boat was the Big 12 runner-up in 2010 and 2011 and won the petite final in the San Diego Open. That victory helped propel OU to its first-ever top-20 ranking in just the third year that rowing has been part of the Sooner program.

Witten was named first-team Conference USA last week after leading OU to a third-place finish in the conference championship. She is a two-time Conference USA first-team All-Academic honoree and was named a first-team Big 12 At-large All-Academic team selection earlier in April. She was honored as a 2011 Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award winner by the Big 12 and was a 2010 Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) All-Academic selection. Witten has been named to the OU President's Honor Roll (4.00 GPA) seven times, the Dean's Honor Roll (3.50-3.99) twice and is an OU honors scholar. She also has been named to the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll five times and is a five-time Sooner Scholar.

Furmanek is a junior elementary education major from Belleville, Ill., and is in her second year with the Sooner program after transferring from Murray State. She has rowed on the Sooners' first varsity eight since transferring and was on the conference runner-up squads in that boat for the 2010 and 2011 Big 12 Championships. She also was part of the petite-final winning squad at the San Diego Open, a performance that helped OU to its first-ever top-20 ranking in just the third year of the program. She was named 2011 team MVP earlier this month.

Furmanek was named a 2011 Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award winner by the Big 12 earlier this year. She was named to the 2011 Big 12 At-Large All-Academic first team and was a Conference USA All-Academic first-team honoree as well this spring. A 2010 CRCA All-Academic selection, she has served as rowing's representative on OU's Student Athlete Advisory Council. Furmanek is a two-time OU President's Honor Roll honoree, has been named to the Dean's Honor Roll once and is a three-time Sooner Scholar and Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll selection.

Mueller has been a key player for the Sooner golf program for four years. A senior health and exercise science major from Evanston, Ind., Mueller played in the NCAA Championship as a junior. She won the 2010 Dale McNamara Invitational last fall, leading the Sooners to the team title. She posted the lowest scoring average of her career as a senior, 73.91, and ended her OU playing career with the second-best career scoring average, 75.27. Mueller holds the OU school record for 54-hole score with a 209, the score she shot to win the Dale McNamara, and was the school record holder for season scoring average. She is a two-time All-Big 12 selection for her performances.

Mueller led the Sooners to the NCAA Regional in three of her four seasons, including the one most recently completed. She registered 26 career top-20 finishes, including eight in her senior season. She finished her career with 15 top-10 finishes, including five this year.

A three-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree, Mueller has been named to the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll seven times. She has been on the President's Honor Roll six times and was on the Dean's Honor Roll once. She received the 2011 OU Athletics Director's Leadership Award and was named an Outstanding Scholar Athlete award winner earlier this spring. She was a second-team CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree in 2010.

The at-large team is for student-athletes who compete in sports that do not have their own teams in the program but are part of the NCAA Championship structure. For women, that includes bowling, crew, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis and water polo. The women's at-large Academic All-America team will be announced June 9.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Three Named to Academic All-District Team

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors