Soma Named First-Team Academic All-District VIII

[rainbowgirl28]

http://gohuskies.collegesports.com/spor ... 05aab.html

Soma Named First-Team Academic All-District VIII
Husky pole vaulter eligible for Academic All-America honors, announced June 21


June 3, 2005

SEATTLE - Washington senior Kate Soma, who will seek her fifth-straight All-America honor in the pole vault at next week's NCAA Championships, was one of 10 West Region women's athletes named Friday to the 2005 ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District VIII first-team. The honor, voted on by collegiate sports information directors in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Montana, puts Soma on the ballot for Academic All-America consideration, results of which will be announced June 21.

A graduate of Grant High School in Portland, Ore., Soma boasts a cumulative grade-point average of 3.50 in business administration at Washington, with an emphasis in marketing. The senior will graduate from UW's School of Business one week from Saturday, but will not be on hand to receive her diploma, instead competing in the pole vault at the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Sacramento.

Soma's NCAA appearance -- the seventh of her UW career -- will see the Husky try to win the first NCAA title by a UW women's athlete since 1988, after consecutive runner-up finishes outdoors in 2004, and indoors in 2005. Soma's four-career All-America awards equal the most by any woman in school history, while her career-best vault of 14 feet, 3 ½ equals the seventh-best ever by a collegiate vaulter.

Soma is the second Husky vaulter in as many years to win the Academic All-District honor. Two-time NCAA champion Brad Walker earned the distinction in 2004, before being named an Academic All-American later that year.