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WALLA WALLA, Wash. - Two standout Whitman College athletes have been voted to ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-District At-Large teams.
Whitman's Laura Valaas, a world-class Nordic skier, and Robbie Munday, a key contributor on the nationally-ranked Missionary men's tennis team, are among the 20 student athletes named to the At-Large teams in the College Division of District VIII. The district includes all NCAA Div. II/Div. III and NAIA schools in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona, as well as British Columbia.
The At-Large teams represent student athletes in a variety of sports, including golf, skiing, gymnastics, ice hockey, swimming, lacrosse and tennis.
Players on All-District At-Large teams from around the nation are now eligible for election to the Academic All-America teams. That voting will take place in June. The College Sports Information Directors of America (Co-SIDA) administers the Academic All-America program, which is in its 55th year and has honored more than 14,000 students at all levels for all recognized NCAA sports.
Valaas, who graduated magna cum laude from Whitman on Sunday, was named to the women's All-District team for a second consecutive year. Munday, a junior who surpassed the 100-victory plateau earlier this spring, was elected to the men's All-District team for the first time.
Valaas, who majored in applied mathematics with minors in physics and gender studies, enjoyed her second consecutive banner year in both Nordic skiing and cycling.
Competing in March against an international field at the NCAA Skiing Championships (Divisions I, II, III), Valaas placed fourth in the 15-kilometer freestyle, earning All-American honors for the third time in her college career. In January, she became the first U.S.-born athlete in nearly two years to win a women’s Nordic race at one of the NCAA’s Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) events.
Also in January, competing against a field of U.S. Olympic Team hopefuls, Valaas placed third in the freestyle sprint at U.S. Nationals. She narrowly missed snaring a spot on the American Olympic squad that competed in February at the Winter Games in Torino, Italy. She was named instead to represent the U.S. at the Under-23 World Cross Country Ski Championships in Kranj, Slovakia, where she placed 14th in the freestyle sprint.
Valaas plans to pursue a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering while continuing to compete as an elite skier. Her long-range goal is to make the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team. A graduate of Wenatchee (Wash.) High School, she is the daughter of Susan and Peter Valaas of Wenatchee. Peter Valaas is a 1975 Whitman graduate.
Munday, who is majoring in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, played most of the spring tennis season at No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles, where he posted Northwest Conference records of 10-3 in singles and 12-3 in doubles. He was named NWC Player of the Week in mid-March after winning four matches in one day, running his career victory total in college past the 100-win plateau.
As a team, Whitman finished the season with win-loss records of 19-7 overall and 15-2 in the NWC. Munday was named to the All-NWC Second Team for a second consecutive season. He earned first-team honors as a freshman when Whitman won the conference championship.
Munday is working this summer in a research internship at the prestigious Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, Calif. His area of research is myelination in adult human stem cells. A year ago, he was Whitman's sole winner of the American Chemical Society's PolyEd Award for Achievement in Organic Chemistry.
Munday is a graduate of British Columbia's Penticton Secondary, and the son of Bonnie and Robert Munday of Okanogan Falls, B.C.
Dave Holden, Whitman Sports Information, (509) 527-5902
Email: holden@whitman.edu