SAN FRANCISCO – UCLA senior Pauline Tratz has been named the 2021 Pac-12 Women’s Gymnastics Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the Conference office announced today. The award, which is presented in each of the 24 sports the Pac-12 sponsors, was established to honor collegiate student-athletes that are standouts both academically and in their sports discipline.

Tratz, a senior from Karlsruhe, Germany, is majoring in communications studies and holds a cumulative 3.86 grade-point average. The 2018 NCAA Regional vault champion and Second Team All-Pac-12 selection on the floor helped lead the Bruins to the 2018 and 2019 Pac-12 Championship titles, along with the 2018 NCAA Team Championship. She currently holds career-high scores of 9.95 on the floor and 9.925 on vault. 

In the classroom, Tratz has earned Athletics Director’s Honor Roll every quarter during her time at UCLA, including earning 2020 UCLA All-Academic Team honors awarded to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA on each team. She is also a three-time WGCA Scholastic All-American and collected spots on the 2019 Pac-12 All-Academic Second Team and 2020 Pac-12 Winter Academic Honor Roll.

In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50 percent of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sport’s regular season. The athletics accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in voting for the award.

A Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be named in each of the Pac-12’s 24 sponsored sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, beach volleyball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, men’s rowing, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track & field, women’s track & field, women’s volleyball, and wrestling. The award was first established during the 2007-08 academic year. 

Also Nominated: Laura Leigh Horton, Arizona; Nina Schank, California; Lucy Dagen, Oregon State; Grace Garcia, Stanford; Sydney Soloski, Utah.