State College, Pa. - May 8, 2002 - Penn State women's fencer
Stephanie Eim (Hendersonville, Tenn.) has been awarded one of 58 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships for the 2001-02 academic year. Eim, a four-time All-American for Penn State's national champion fencing team, is the first Penn Stater to win such an award since Travis Forney won a scholarship in 2000.
The NCAA announced it has awarded 58 scholarships of $5,000 each to 29 men and 29 women who participated in winter sports, which included men's and women's basketball, fencing, men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's ice hockey, rifle, skiing, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's indoor track and field and wrestling.
Eim, a native of Tennessee, helped guide Penn State to its ninth NCAA National Championship at this year's 2002 Fencing Championships. Eim nabbed her fourth straight All-America honor with a third place finish at nationals. Eim posted a superb 41-1 record during dual matches this year, helping to guide the Penn State women to a 17-1 overall mark.
Over the course of her four years with Penn State, Eim collected a 147-14 mark in duals and was a four-time All-American (placing second, third, third, and third). She was co-captain of this year's team and was a three-time Academic All-Big Ten pick. Eim is a candidate for Verizon Academic All-American as well. She becomes the second Penn State fencer ever to win this scholarship. Olga Kalinovskaya won one in 1996.
Eim's award is the latest academic success for Penn State athletes. The University has had 30 student-athletes earn Verizon Academic All-America honors in the past four years, including a record-tying nine in 2000-01, with eight and nine honorees the previous two years. A total of 96 Nittany Lion and Lady Lion student-athletes have earned Academic All-America honors, the third-highest total among all NCAA Division I-A programs. Fifty-three of those selections have come over the last eight years.
Penn State also had 64 Academic All-Big Ten selections for the 2001 fall sports (cumulative 3.0 GPA or higher) and 46 in the winter, for a total of 110 (second among all Big Ten schools to date).
