Gettysburg's Kurpis Nabs NCAA Scholarship
from press release
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Recent graduate Timothy Kurpis
(Yorktown, N.Y./Yorktown) of the Gettysburg College men's lacrosse
team became the ninth student-athlete in school history to be
awarded a NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, it was announced
Thursday.
Kurpis is one of just 29 male student-athletes who compete in
spring sports across all three NCAA divisions to capture the award
– a one-time grant of $7,500. He is just the second
Gettysburg men's lacrosse player in school history to receive the
prestigious honor, joining John Fairhurst '07.
Gettysburg has now had at least one student-athlete win a NCAA
Postgraduate Scholarship in each of the past four years, starting
with Fairhurst in 2007, and eight of the school's nine winners have
come since 2003.
It is the third major academic award of the spring for Kurpis, who
was also named an ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA First Team Academic
All-American and USILA Scholar All-American.
A standout defenseman and a two-time USILA All-American, Kurpis
helped lead a Gettysburg defense that finished 12th in Division III
(6.67 goals per game) this season. He was named a USILA First Team
All-American after taking honorable mention in 2009, was an
All-Centennial Conference First Team selection for the second year
in a row, was selected to play in the USILA North-South Senior
All-Star Game, and copped ECAC Second Team All-Star
recognition.
The Bullets, who finished 15-3, reached the Centennial Conference
championship game, earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Division
III Tournament, and a No. 4 national ranking in the final USILA
poll. Gettysburg spent three weeks ranked No. 1 early in the
season.
On the field, Kurpis ended the year with 31 ground balls to go with
22 caused turnovers, which ranked second among the Bullets. Early
in the season, he helped Gettysburg limit defending national
champion, then-No. 1 SUNY Cortland, to five goals in a 7-5 victory
on Long Island in a rematch of the 2009 Division III championship
game.
For his career, Kurpis played in 64 games and made 58 consecutive
starts over his final three seasons.
In the classroom, Kurpis finished with a 4.04 cumulative
grade-point average as an economics major and mathematics minor. He
owns the highest GPA of all Gettysburg male varsity letterwinners,
and was selected by faculty to participate in the Fed Challenge
this past fall at the Federal Reserve. A former intern at AIG and
BNY Mellon in credit risk management, he will begin working at
AllianceBernstein, a large asset management company.
The NCAA awards up to 174 postgraduate scholarships annually: 87
for men and 87 for women. The scholarships are awarded to
student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who
are in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition.
The one-time grants of $7,500 each are awarded for fall sports,
winter sports, and spring sports. Each sports season (fall, winter
and spring), there are 29 scholarships available for men and 29
scholarships available for women. The scholarships are one-time,
non-renewable grants.
