WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Robbie Munday, a key contributor on the nationally ranked men's tennis team at Whitman College, has capped his playing career with a pair of prestigious awards.
Munday, who graduated magna cum laude on Sunday with honors in his academic major, was named today to ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-District At-Large Team for a second consecutive year. Munday, a resident of Okanogan Falls, B.C., was named in the College Division of District VIII, which represents all NCAA Div. II/III and NAIA schools in nine western states and British Columbia. The at-large team represents student athletes in a variety of sports, including golf, skiing, swimming, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse and tennis.
One of only 10 male students voted to the all-district team, Munday is now eligible for Academic All-American honors. He is the third member of the men's tennis team in the past five years to earn academic all-district honors as both a junior and senior. Earning that distinction previously were Sam Spiegel, who graduated in 2004, and Brad Changstrom, a 2005 graduate who served as a Whitman assistant coach this past year.
Last week, Munday was honored by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association with its West Region Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship. He is the third Whitman men's tennis player in the last nine years to win the award. Previous Whitman winners were Tim Mullin (Salem, Ore.) in 2002 and Haroon Ullah (Richland, Wash.) in 1999.
"While highly competitive on the court, Robbie has always conducted himself with the utmost sportsmanship and respect for his opponents and their coaches," Whitman tennis coach Jeff Northam said. "Guided by his intelligence, innate sense of integrity and friendly nature, Robbie has been a model for what a student athlete should be. In many respects, he reminds me of the ways in which Arthur Ashe conducted himself as one of America's top tennis statesmen."
The academic standard Munday set for other student athletes is "unparalleled in my time at Whitman," Northam added. "Not only did he pursue impressive summer internships and participate in ground-breaking research related to his interests in the medical field, he volunteered to tutor younger tennis players as well as younger science students through his fraternity."
Munday, who was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa national academic honor society, majored in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology. He wrote his senior honors thesis on research he did last summer during an internship at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies in San Diego, Calif.
During his time at Whitman, Munday volunteered in the both the Cancer Center and Emergency Room at Walla Walla's St. Mary Medical Center. He plans to work in a laboratory research setting in Washington, D.C., during the next academic year while he applies to medical school.
Munday, a graduate of British Columbia’s Penticton Secondary, earned All-Northwest Conference honors in each of his four years at Whitman. This past spring, he and senior teammates Phalkun Mam and Steven Ly led Whitman to a No. 12 ranking in NCAA Div. III and a berth in the national championship tournament. He finished his college career in third place on Whitman's all-time list for career victories.
Munday is the son of Robert and Bonnie Munday of Okanogan Falls, B.C.