Grove City’s Winters, Carnegie Mellon’s Benger named PAC SAAC Scholar-Athletes for November 12/15/2017 11:20:00 AM GREENVILLE, Pa. (pacathletics.org) – Grove City College senior Trishae Winters (Pittsburgh, Pa. | Hampton) and Carnegie Mellon University senior Sam Benger (Hingham, Mass. | Hingham) have been named the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Scholar-Athletes of the Month for November. Each month, the SAAC’s at PAC member institutions are asked to nominate one male and one female student-athlete for PAC SAAC Scholar-Athlete of the Month consideration based on academic and athletic accomplishments. Nominees must be a varsity team member in their respective sport and in their junior or senior year. Scholar-Athlete of the Month nominees must also have a cumulative grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher and be actively involved within their campus communities. Winters, a two-year starter for Grove City’s soccer program, posted a 17-6 record this season. She recorded a 0.76 goals-against average (GAA) and an .850 save percentage. Winters led the PAC in wins, GAA and save percentage. She also posted seven shutouts. Winters set Grove City's career shutout record this season with 16. Her 34 career wins are tied for first in program annals. Winters earned First Team All-PAC honors on November 9 and on December 9 collected All-Great Lakes Region recognition from United Soccer Coaches for the second-straight year. Winters was lauded with Division III Academic All-America honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), through voting by the nation's sports information directors, on December 5. She was voted a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection on November 9. Grove City finished 17-6 this season and advanced to the semifinals of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Championship Tournament. At Grove City, Winters has been honored on the Dean’s List with High Distinction and is also a recipient of the College’s Dean’s Scholarship. She is an active member of Grove City’s chapter of Mortar Board, a national college senior honorary, Beta Beta Beta (TriBeta), a biological sciences honorary, and Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honorary. Winters works as a nursing assistant at UPMC Passavant and is a tutor in Grove City’s Department of Biology. She has served as a leader of a grief share campus ministry group and has led the Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North youth group. A biology major and psychology minor, Winters owns a 3.96 GPA. She intends to attend medical school after graduating from Grove City in May. Honorable mention nominees include: Chatham University junior Julie Bruening (soccer), Geneva College junior Sydney McNulty (volleyball), Thomas More College junior Jenna Fessler (volleyball) and Waynesburg University senior Angie Marchetti (cross country). Benger, nagged by injuries throughout his senior season with the Tartan football program, finished with 1,053 rushing yards in 2017, the fifth-highest output in the league. Carnegie Mellon’s career rushing leader with 5,386 yards, he is the first player in program history to gain 1,000 or more rushing yards in three-straight seasons. Benger ranks third among PAC career leaders in rushing yards, carries (915) and rushing touchdowns (59). Recognized throughout his career as an American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division III All-American, a D3football.com All-American and an Associated Press (AP) Little All-American, he was voted the PAC’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2015 and 2016. On November 1, Benger was one of just two non-Division I players to be named a finalist by the National Football Foundation (NFF) and College Hall of Fame for this year’s William V. Campbell Trophy, an award that recognizes an individual as the absolute best scholar-athlete in the nation. As one of the 13 finalists for this year’s $18,000 postgraduate scholarship, Benger traveled to New York City for the 60th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on December 5. A three-time CoSIDA Academic All-District selection and two-time Division III Academic All-American, he was one of 146 players to be nominated for the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, one of the most prestigious off-the-field honors in college football, in September. Last summer, Benger interned for Deloitte and during its annual Impact Day, a celebration of Deloitte’s year-round commitment to volunteering in local communities, he worked on renovating a dilapidated elementary school. He has volunteered with Pittsburgh Children's Hospital Donate Life program and serves as a mentor in the Pittsburgh area for several young men battling illness, especially with one juvenile diabetic like Benger himself. He has also volunteered at the Western Spring Sectional competition of the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania and with the 1,000plus Day of Service initiative, which aims to get over 1000 members of the Carnegie Mellon community together to serve in a collective day of service. Benger carries a 3.67 GPA as a business administration major. He has accepted a business analyst position at Deloitte in Boston, but is attempting to continue his football career at the next level. Honorable mention nominees include: Chatham University junior Devin Seka (cross country) and Geneva College senior Josh Brenize (soccer).