Vote Katie Cecil as Your Favorite NCAA Elite 89 Winner

(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.) - Recent graduate Katie Cecil (Huntington Beach, Calif./Ocean View) has done many things for the Carnegie Mellon University Athletics community and Carnegie Mellon University, along with earning the prestigious distinction of being an NCAA Elite 89 award winner. This past spring, the women's tennis standout earned the award from the NCAA for the second straight year.

With a special promotion from the NCAA, Carnegie Mellon fans can now vote Katie as their favorite Elite 89 winner from the 2013-14 season. Voting is limited to once per day per email address until 5:00 p.m. ET on July 13, 2014. At that point, the field will be narrowed down to 30 semifinalists.

Let's show Katie how much we appreciate her efforts on the court and in the classroom by VOTING her our favorite Elite 89 winner!

Katie graduated from Carnegie Mellon's Mellon College of Science with a cumulative grade point average of 4.0. She won numerous academic awards including being named a CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-American twice. On the court, Katie was a two-time All-American in singles and led the Tartans to two NCAA quarterfinals appearances during her three years. She was also honored by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) her sophomore year as the National Player to Watch and as the National Arthur Ashe Jr. for Leadership and Sportsmanship Award winner her junior year.

Off the court, she was a member of the Carnegie Mellon Student-Athlete Advisory Council where she volunteered for the Light's On afterschool and Ten Thousand Villages projects.  During her work with the Light's On project, she interacted with youth to teach the benefit of afterschool activities while she supported one of the world's oldest and largest fair trade organizations through the Ten Thousand Villages program. As a junior, Cecil led a service project with the tennis team in April working at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Cecil also volunteered her time to the St. Bernard Rebuilding Project by helping to build houses in New Orleans as part of Hurricane Katrina Relief in 2010.

The Elite 89, an award founded by the NCAA, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. The Elite 89 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 89 championships. All GPAs are based on a straight grading scale to ensure consistency among institutions. All ties are broken by the number of credits completed.

Eligible student-athletes are sophomores or above who have participated in their sports for at least two years with their schools. They must be an active member of the team, traveling and competing at the championship.