GCC grad Karabin recognized with NCAA Elite-90 Award

Greensburg Central Catholic graduate Michelle Karabin, a senior at Carnegie Mellon University and a member of the women’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams, is a recipient of the NCAA Elite-90 Award, the school announced Friday.

The award each year recognizes select Division I, II and III student-athletes who demonstrate the mix of excellence in both the classroom and their arena of competition. To be eligible, the individual must be at least a sophomore, have competed at least two years with their school, and have the highest grade-point average of any athlete who participated at the national-championship site for their sport.

Karabin qualified for the Division III indoor track and field championships in the pole vault with a qualifying distance and indoor career-best mark of 3.72 meters at the Battle for the Obelisk against Case Western Reserve in January.

She was set to make her first NCAA indoor championship appearance and second trip to an NCAA nationals event overall March 13, but the day before she was to compete in Winston-Salem, N.C., the NCAA canceled all remaining winter sports championships as part of the early response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The NCAA still presented her the award.

Karabin placed eighth (3.65 meters) in the pole vault and earned All-American honors at the 2018 outdoor championships in La Crosse, Wisc.

Academically, Karabin maintained a 4.0 grade-point average while majoring in mechanical and biomedical engineering. This fall, she will begin the pursuit of a Ph.D in biomedical engineering at Pitt.

Karabin wasn’t the first WPIAL or City League alum to earn Elite-90 selection for the 2019-20 academic year.

Chartiers Valley graduate Joseph Westrick, a senior at Gannon, capped his collegiate cross country career in the fall with his second consecutive trip to the NCAA Division II national championships.

He celebrated the season by winning the first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference individual cross country title in program history. He added a nationals-qualifying fourth-place finish at the Atlantic Region Championships at Lock Haven.

Westrick owns a 4.0 GPA while majoring in environmental engineering.

The NCAA has not officially announced if they will present any type of Elite-90-related award to spring athletes who had their seasons canceled.