April 29, 2008

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell senior Katherine Brewster-Duffy (Stonington, Conn./St. George's School), a member of the Bison women's rowing team, received a special award at the University's annual Senior Athletic Awards Banquet, sponsored by the Bison Club and held in Sojka Pavilion on Tuesday, April 29.

Brewster-Duffy won the Christy Mathewson Award, presented to "the outstanding senior athlete." Brewster-Duffy shared the award with Jason Buursma of the baseball team, who was the male selection.

Brewster-Duffy became the first All-America selection in the history of the Bison women's rowing program last spring. She has been a member of Bucknell's varsity eight boat that has won three consecutive Patriot League Boat of the Year honors and has helped the Bison to three straight Patriot League team titles, the most recent coming this past Sunday.

The Stonington, Conn., native is a two-time All-Patriot League selection and was named First Team All-Mid-Atlantic in 2007.

A three-time Bison Athlete of the Week and a key senior leader (team captain) on this year's squad, Brewster-Duffy was voted as the team's Athlete of the Year in 2007 and helped the varsity eight to an 8-1 record that season. This year, the varsity eight, which Brewster-Duffy mans the six-seat in, is 7-1 with the only loss coming to nationally ranked Virginia.

Bucknell is a highly-selective, privately endowed liberal arts institution with an enrollment of approximately 3,400 undergraduate students. Bucknell competes in NCAA Division I as a member of the Patriot League and has full membership along with American, Army, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh and Navy. Bucknell has won the Presidents' Cup, signifying the Patriot League's all-sports champion, in 13 of 17 years, including nine of the last 10.

Recently, 17 Bison programs - the seventh-most in Division I - earned NCAA Public Recognition for having Academic Performance Rates in the top 10 percent nationally in their respective sport. In addition, Bucknell ranks fifth in Division I in the total number of CoSIDA Academic All-America selections, with 114 national Academic All-Americans since 1970.