BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — University of Charleston goalkeeper Nicolai Gundersen has been given the NCAA Elite 90 Award, which recognizes the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average among those who have reached the final site for each of the NCAA’s 90 men’s and women’s championships across all three of its divisions.
 
Gundersen and the UC men’s soccer team reached the NCAA Division II national championship match last Saturday. After Thursday’s semifinal win against CSU Pueblo, Gundersen was honored as this year’s D2 men’s soccer recipient. The Norway native is a senior who played in 18 games — 17 starts — while maintaining a 4.0 GPA as an accounting major. The Golden Eagles’ keeper led the MEC with goals against average (.988) and shutouts per game (.444, 8 in 18 games).
 
Gundersen, who was a Mountain East Conference men’s soccer first team all-conference selection, as voted by the league’s head coaches, is the 12th student-athlete from the MEC to earn the honor. Previously, four UC student-athletes were honored, including Conor Branson (2014 and 2015, soccer), Abhinhav Nath (2016, soccer) and Adam Burchell (2019, men’s soccer).
 
Prior to Gundersen, Fairmont State men’s tennis player Elia Barozzi earned Elite 90 honors in 2023.
 
The full name of the award is the Elite 90 Academic Recognition Program. Students are eligible if they have achieved at least a sophomore in academic and athletic standing and if they are in at least the second year of competition in any sport at their current institution. The award was created in 2009-10 as the Elite 88 Award, and evolved to the Elite 89 Award in 2011-12 with the addition of a Division III Volleyball Championship, and the Elite 90 Award in 2015-16 with the creation of the NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship.