Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:30:45 +0000

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NEW ORLEANS – Reuben Mwei of Adams State has been named as Division II’s male cross country Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the 2009 season as announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Thursday. Mwei is also among 152 given All-Academic status for the previous cross country season for their efforts in the classroom and on nation’s cross country courses.

2008 Honorees | Award History

Mwei, a senior from Kapsabet, Kenya, has a 3.40 cumulative GPA in the field of Psychology through the 2009 fall semester. Mwei is the second Scholar-Athlete honoree in-a-row for Adams State as Aaron Braun won the award in 2008.

In the fall, Mwei was named as the USTFCCCA’s National Athlete of the Year after capturing the individual NCAA crown in cross country. Mwei clocked 30:27.8 over 10 kilomaters at the national championships in Evansville, Ind., winning by only four tenths of a second over Harding’s Daniel Kirwa to become the first individual from Adams State to win the national cross country title since 2003.

Mwei also finished first at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships (RMAC) this fall and finished third at the NCAA Central Regional Championship. Mwei, also the USTFCCCA Central Region Male Athlete of the Year finished the Central Region course with a time of 30:57.3, helping lead the Grizzlies to their second-straight regional title.

Mwei is joined by fellow Grizzlies Aaron Braun, Brandon Birdsong, Luke Cragg, and Anthony Gauthier as All-Academic honorees. Adams State also captured its second-consecutive national team title in November.

To qualify for All-Academic honors, a student-athlete must have completed at least 12 semester/quarter hours through the semester of competition at the institution to be eligible.  The student-athlete must have at least a 3.25 cumulative grade point average and have placed in the top 30% of the total number of athletes eligible to compete at the respective regional championships or have placed in the top 50% of the field at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships.

The 152 USTFCCCA All-Academic honorees represent 78 schools around the country. The list includes nine who were reported to have 4.0 GPAs at the end of the 2009 fall semester: Matt Braithwaite of Augustana (S.D.), Chris Lantinen of Edinboro, Matt Rutt of Indiana (Pa.), Jacob Stucky of Lenoir-Rhyne, Jesse Baggenstos of Northwest Nazarene, Simon Stuetzel of Queens (N.C.), Jordan Kirwen of Findlay, Micah Chelimo of Alaska, and Kevin Clancy of UNC Pembroke.

The list also includes four who finished in the nation’s top 10 at the NCAA Cross Country Championships and one regional champion.

Western State and Edinboro led the country by placing six on the All-Academic list. Adams State followed with five. The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) again had the most conference student-athletes on the USTFCCCA Cross Country All-Academic list with 27, followed by the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) who placed 18.

The female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in Division II, along with additional individuals given All-Academic status, will be released tomorrow, Friday, February 26. Those institutions given All-Academic Team status will be named on Wednesday, March 3 (men) and Thursday, March 4 (women).

USTFCCCA 2009 Division II Cross Country All-Academic Honorees, MEN

* Reported having a 4.0 cumulative GPA
^ Scholar-Athlete of the Year

An athletics fundraiser, professor emeritus and agribusiness leader will receive the prestigious Watauga Medal for distinguished service to North Carolina State University.

Kenneth M. “Charlie” Bryant, Dr. Hou-min Chang and H. Frank Grainger will receive NC State’s highest nonacademic honor at the Founders’ Day Dinner on Monday, March 8.

Charlie Bryant’s career spans more than 50 years as an athlete, coach and university administrator. As an assistant basketball coach at NC State from 1964 to 1970, Bryant helped lead the Wolfpack to two ACC titles. He was executive secretary of the Student Aid Association from 1976 to 1997, adding duties as executive director for athletic development in 1991.

He conceived the “Wolfpack Pride” fundraising campaign, the largest athletic development effort of its kind in the 1990s, to fund the RBC Center and enlarge Carter-Finley Stadium. As executive director of the Wolfpack Club, he helped raise scholarship money for more than 300 students each of his 22 years. He served on the board of directors for the Student Aid Association from 1997 to 2005.

Bryant, who lives in Cary, was honored with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine and NC State’s Shavlik Award of Merit. His induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2006, marked the first time an athletic fundraiser had been selected.

Hou-min Chang, professor emeritus of wood and paper science, was recognized for continuing achievements in research and international program development. A faculty member for more than 30 years, he rose from postdoctoral fellow to become the Reuben Robertson Distinguished Professor of Pulp and Paper Science. He was instrumental in establishing the forest biotechnology program and Forest Biotechnology Industrial Research Consortium.

Chang was honored with the NC State Alumni Association’s Outstanding Research Award and recognized as a Distinguished Professor of Graduate Teaching. He has established endowments for undergraduate students in paper science and started a graduate research fellowship. His former students hold executive positions in large corporations and leadership positions with the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Agriculture.

Since retirement in 2005, the Raleigh resident has co-authored 20 papers and four invention disclosures in biomaterials and biofuels, co-chaired three international conferences and led the creation of an integrated master’s degree program between NC State and Nanjing Forestry University. He has been a principal or co-principal investigator on grants totaling more than $7.5 million since beginning the part-time phase of his retirement in 2001.

H. Frank Grainger of Cary has completed three terms on the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. The agricultural business leader is a founding member of the advisory board for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Alumni and Friends Society at NC State. He has served on the Wolfpack Club board of directors and the College of Education advisory board. He co-founded NC State Economic Development Coalition 2000 and served as a board member for the Research Triangle Foundation.

Grainger is a member of the North Carolina Agricultural Foundation and the North Carolina Tobacco Foundation. He has chaired the J.C. Raulston Arboretum Gala and served on the arboretum’s board of directors.

NC State’s Alumni Association honored Grainger with an honorary alumnus degree in 1998 and an Award of Merit in 2008. In 2004, he received the North Carolina Agricultural Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award. Last year he was inducted into Gamma Sigma Delta honor society of agriculture.

For more information about the Watauga Medal, previous winners and the program’s history, visit www.ncsu.edu/watauga.

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