INDIANAPOLIS – Recent graduate Timothy Kurpis 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). 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.
