PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State rowing senior, Paige Danielson, has been named the 2019 Pac-12 Women's Rowing Scholar-Athlete of the Year as well as to the Google Cloud Academic All-District 8 Women's At-Large Team, selected by CoSIDA, the Pac-12 and CoSIDA announced, respectively, Thursday.

Danielson becomes the third Cougar rower to be named the Scholar-Athlete of the Year, which is only given to seniors, and is picking up Google Cloud First Team All-Academic honors for the second-straight year after being named to the second team as a sophomore in 2017. Danielson joins former Cougar Katie Dick as three-time CoSIDA/Google Cloud All-District honorees. Last year Danielson moved on to earn Google Cloud Academic All-America Second Team honors. She also joins Dick (2013) and Mihaela-Teodora Berindei (2017) as the only three WSU rowers to be named Pac-12 Scholar-Athletes of the Year. 

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.

Danielson, a native of St. Cloud, Minn., graduated from Washington State in May with a degree in electrical engineering and a 4.0 grade point average. She is a three-time first team Pac-12 All-Academic, CRCA Scholar-Athlete and CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree. She is also a two-time NCAA Elite 90 Award winner, given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA at each NCAA Championships site. Danielson was a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honors society, and was the Honors Student Advisory Council president. She has worked as a research assistant for the Systems on Chips Lab, and as a hydropower intern for the US Army Corps of Engineers at the Lower Granite Lock and Dam the last two years. She plans to pursue her Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of Colorado next fall. Danielson also finds the time to give back to the Pullman community as a volunteer for Coug Pals, an organization that pairs WSU student-athletes with children from local elementary schools to be pen pals. 

On the water Danielson has led the Cougars to NCAA top-14 finishes each of the last three seasons. She's a former walk-on who worked her way up to row with the varsity four as a freshman and with the varsity eight from her sophomore year on. She is now the only senior rower on this season's varsity eight boat. 

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.

The Google Cloud All-Academic women's at-large category includes student-athletes participating in bowling, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, rowing, skiing, swimming, tennis and water polo. This season's all-district team is made up of 11 student-athletes from swimming, skiing, water polo, golf and gymnastics. Danielson is the only rower on the team, as 10of the honorees come from Pac-12 schools. 

Danielson and all of the Academic All-District First Team honorees from all eight districts now advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be selected later this month.  

The Academic All-District teams include student-athletes divided into eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada.  The teams include NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III participants, while the College Division team combines NAIA, Canadian and two-year schools. 

Danielson and the Cougars compete this Sunday, May 19 at the 2019 Pac-12 Women's Rowing Championships at Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif. A broadcast of the championship events will be tape delayed into two 30-minute shows on Pac-12 Networks on Wednesday, May 22 starting with the women's championship at 7:30 p.m. PT Full Championship details are available at pac-12.com/19RC.

PREVIOUS WOMEN'S ROWING SCHOLAR-ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
Year    Women's
2018-19    Paige Danielson, Washington State
2017-18    Ida Gortz Jacobsen, USC
2016-17    Mihaela-Teodora Berindei, Washington State
2015-16    Kendall Chase, California
2014-15    Naomi Cornman, Stanford
2013-14    Ali Fauci, Stanford
2012-13    Katie Dick, Washington State
2011-12    Marielle Higgins, Stanford
2010-11    Erika Roddy, Stanford
2009-10    Christina Sprouse, UCLA
2008-09    Robin Hextrum, USC
2007-08    Kaylie Towne, Oregon State

Google Cloud Academic All-District
NCAA DIVISION I – DISTRICT 8 (AK, AZ, CA, HI, NV, OR, UT, WA, Canada)
FIRST TEAM

Sport	Name	School	Year	GPA	Major
Tennis	Emily Arbuthnott	Stanford	Jr.	4.14	Economics
Rowing	Paige Danielson	Washington State	Sr.	4.00	Electrical Engineering
Swimming	Ella Eastin	Stanford	Sr.	3.74	Human Biology
Water Polo	Makenzie Fischer	Stanford	Jr.	4.03	Mechanical Engineering
Gymnastics	Anne Kuhm	Arizona State	Sr.	4.00	Liberal Studies
Tennis	Hanneke Lodewijks	Northern Arizona	Sr.	4.00	Exercise Science
Gymnastics	Shannon McNatt	Utah	Sr.	3.99	Quantitative Analysis of Markets & Organizations
Skiing	Julie Mohagen	Utah	Sr.	4.00	Finance
Swimming	Emma Nordin	Arizona State	So.	3.99	Biological Science Neurobiology/Physiology & Behavior
Golf	Petra Salko	Oregon	Sr.	4.05	Business Administration/Finance
Golf	Albane Valenzuela	Stanford	Jr.	4.03	Political Science