Four Student-Athletes Selected To Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-District Five At-Large Team For Spring Sports
Mike Adams, Steve Ratay, Leah Ashe and Liz Grow move on to national Academic All-America ballot.

May 22, 2001

Notre Dame, Ind. – Four Notre Dame student-athletes – two men and two women – have been selected to the Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-District Five At-Large Team for spring sports.

Men’s lacrosse player Mike Adams (Sr., Wilton, Conn.) and golfer Steve Ratay (Jr., Arlington Heights, Ill.) were among 10 District Five athletes selected on the men’s side. They were joined by women’s rowing standout Leah Ashe (Sr., Orchard Park, N.Y.) and All-American sprinter Liz Grow (Jr., New Braunfels, Texas) who were selected to the 10 member District Five women’s squad. All four athletes will now go on their respective national ballots for Verizon Academic All-American honors. The men’s team will be announced on June 12 and the women’s team on June 14.

Adams is one of four co-captains on Notre Dame’s nationally-ranked lacrosse team that has advanced to the NCAA semifinals for the first time in the program’s history this weekend versus Syracuse. He graduated on May 20 cum laude (with honors) with a degree in accounting, where he had a 3.439 grade-point average. Adams has been a three-year starter and anchors one of the best defenses in the nation. The Irish head into the final weekend of the season ranked third in the nation in defense giving up just 6.60 goals per game and have held six opponents to five goals or less this season. Notre Dame has won a school-record 14 games (14-1) and is ranked fifth in the nation. Adams has scored three goals with one assist from his defensive spot during his career.

Ratay is coming off an outstanding season which saw him lead Notre Dame with a 73.68 stroke average over 28 rounds. He was the top Irish finisher in five of the team’s ten tournaments which included two firsts, one second and one fourth place finish. Ratay finished in a three-way tie for the BIG EAST Championship with a 54-hole mark of 215 (+5) in late April. During the fall, he tied for first at the Wisconsin Invitational with a 54-hole mark of 212 (-4). The Irish team captain owns a 3.781 grade-point average in Computer Science and has been a Dean’s List selection in all five of his semesters at Notre Dame. He was chosen as the golf team’s winner of the Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley Rockne Student-Athlete Award.

Ashe was a key member of the Notre Dame women’s rowing team that achieved its best season in the three-year history of the program. Rowing in the bow seat of the second varsity eight that finished second at the BIG EAST Rowing Challenge, Ashe was her team’s winner of the Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley’s Rockne Student-Athlete Award. For the year, the Notre Dame crew team was ranked 16th in the nation and won four races including the Indiana Cup, the Chicago Chase, the Head of the Rock and the Head of the Elk while placing second at the San Diego Crew Classic. Ashe has graduated with a 3.873 grade-point average in mechanical engineering.

Grow has a 3.491 grade-point average in English and has qualified for the NCAA Track and Field Championships (May 29-June 1) in Eugene, Ore., in the 400 meters and on Notre Dame’s 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relay teams. She won the 2001 BIG EAST 400-meters in a time of 53.17 and set a personal-best in qualifying with a 52.40 preliminary time. Grow also took all-BIG EAST honors in the 200 meters (24.20) and was a member of Notre Dame’s BIG EAST champion 4 x 100 relay team. She has already taken All-America honors this season at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in the 400 meters and won the BIG EAST indoor title in that race. Grow is the Notre Dame record holder in both the indoor and outdoor 400 meters and is the school’s first sprinter ever to take All-America honors.

The Academic All-America Spring At-Large teams are chosen from student-athletes participating in seven spring sports – rowing (women), lacrosse, indoor/outdoor track, water polo (women), golf, tennis and volleyball (men). The teams are then selected in voting by the College Sports Information Directors of America.