NEWARK, DE -- Five University of Delaware women’s rowers have been selected to the 2006 Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) National Scholar-Athlete Team.

Seniors Lane Kohl and Cathy Savarese (at right), juniors Kenna Plangemann and Laura Beaufort, and sophomore Justine Strausser were among 44 student-athletes from the Mid-Atlantic Region and 135 student-athletes overall from 50 schools throughout the country honored on the team.

The five helped lead Delaware to the unofficial Colonial Athletic Association team championship this past April, the team’s fourth league title in the last five years. All five were mainstays of Delaware’s Varsity Eights boat this season that captured the CAA title with a time of 7:03.9 and also advanced to the second round at the Dad Vail Regatta and placed fourth in the petite finals at the ECAC Metro Championships.

The team honors student-athletes with a 3.5 or better cumulative grade point average who competed in 75 percent or more of their team’s races during the spring season. Freshmen are not eligible.

The University of Central Florida had the most honorees with six followed by Delaware, Clemson, Rhode Island, Villanova, and Yale with five selections each.

Kohl, a senior from Mohnton, PA (Governor Mifflin High School), carries a 3.796 grade point index as an exercise science major with a minor in strength and conditioning and biology. A College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-American nominee and a third-year member of the CRCA team, Kohl earned the team’s Alumni Association Most Valuable Player Award this past spring. She is a three-year letterwinner.

Savarese, a senior from Huntington Station, NY (Walt Whitman HS), carries a 3.851 grade point index as an exercise physiology major with a minor in nutrition and strength and conditioning. She is a two-year letterwinner.

Plangemann, a junior coxswain from Allentown, PA (Allentown Central Catholic HS), carries a 3.730 grade point index as a political science and history major. She is a two-year letterwinner.

Beaufort, a junior from Washington, DC (Woodrow Wilson HS), carries a 3.614 grade point index as a political science major with minors in history and computer science. A three-year letterwinner, she earned CRCA second team All-Region honors a year ago as well as being a member of the CRCA Scholar-Athlete team.

Strausser, a sophomore from Lancaster, PA (Manheim Township HS), carries a 3.617 grade point index as a biology major with minors in chemistry and French. She is a two-year letterwinner.