Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Steve Ratay Selected Third Team Verizon Academic All-American

June 14, 2001

Notre Dame, Ind. –

Notre Dame golfer Steve Ratay (Jr., Arlington Heights, Ill.) has been chosen to the Verizon Academic All-American At-Large team for the spring of 2001.

The Irish team captain was named to the third team, marking the second consecutive year that a Notre Dame golfer has been chosen as a third team Academic All-American. Jeff Connell, a 2000 graduate was selected last season.

Joining Ratay as Academic All-Americans are lacrosse standout Mike Adams (Sr., Wilton, Conn.) on the men’s team and rower Leah Ashe (Sr., Orchard Park, N.Y.) who was named to the women’s team. Adams was a first team selection while Ashe took second team honors.

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 six 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.

The selection of Adams, Ratay and Ashe to the Verizon Academic All-American team gives the Irish a total of 11 student-athletes selected during the 2000-01 school year, surpassed only by the 12 athletes selected during 1995-96. Notre Dame now has 135 Academic All-Americans (second most all-time) since the program began in 1952.

Over the past two years, Notre Dame has had 20 student-athletes, representing 10 different teams selected Academic All-American. Baseball, with four, leads the way, followed by softball (3), women’s basketball (2), women’s soccer (2), men’s lacrosse (2), men’s golf (2), hockey (2), men’s soccer (1), women’s track (1) and rowing (1).

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.