A pair of national champions -- men's hockey forward Karson Kuhlman and track and cross country runner Emi Trost -- were bestowed with the University of Minnesota Duluth's Outstanding Male and Female Senior Athlete Awards for 2017-18 at the eighth annual Dinner with Champions presented by Subway banquet on Tuesday night (April 17) in the UMD Kirby Ballroom while Grant Pulver (men's track and cross country) and Catherine Daoust (women's hockey) received this year's E.L. "Duce" Rasmussen Award as the school's top scholar-athletes.

In addition, senior women's basketball forward Amanda Hunt was the recipient of the Shjon Podein Community Service Award, which is presented annually to a UMD student-athlete who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the field of play and has made noteworthy humanitarian contributions in the Duluth and University communities.

The night also included the awarding of two team honors -- the Chancellor's Cup went to the volleyball Bulldogs for maintaining the best collective grade point average during the last two semesters (3.76) of any team while the UMD Team Impact Award was given to the women's tennis Bulldogs for averaging the most community service hours during the 2017-18 school year (25.0 hours per player). Both teams were repeat winners.

Kuhlman capped off his rewarding four-year career earlier this month by captaining UMD to the NCAA national title. The Esko, Minn., native, did not miss a game since joining the Bulldog program in 2014-15. That ironman streak of 166 consecutive appearances equaled a program record (set by Hobey Baker Memorial winner Jack Connolly between 2008-12) and is the seventh longest in NCAA history. This past season, he ranked third among Bulldogs in goals (a career-high 13) while generating 20 points in 44 outings. Voted the Most Outstanding Player at both the NCAA Frozen Four and the NCAA West Regional, Kuhlman was the winner of the 2017-18 National Collegiate Hockey Conference Sportsmanship Award and a Top Ten Finalist for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award (based on achievement in the "Four C's" -- classroom, character, community and competition). Kuhlman, who served as a UMD alternate team captain as a junior, racked up 39 goals and 41 assists as a collegian while going a +41. The four-time NCHC All-Academic Team honoree signed a two-year National Hockey League contract with the Boston Bruins on April 10.



Trost is a 10-time NCAA Division II All-American, attaining that honor five times in indoor track, three times in cross country and twice in outdoor track. Last May, the Goodhue, Minn., product captured the NCAA II outdoor 1,500-meter crown to become UMD's fourth female individual national champion. Trost took part in the NCAA II Cross Country Championships in each of her four years with the Bulldogs, including in 2016 when she placed fourth overall -- the highest finish ever for a Bulldog at that event. As a junior, she also reigned as the NSIC champion, the first UMD runner to do that in seven seasons. In addition to her 1,500-meter championship conquest in 2017, Trost has also posted four runnerup finishes at the NCAA track nationals (indoor mile and distance medley relay in both 2016 and 2017) and a pair of four-place efforts (indoor mile in 2015 and outdoor 1,500 meters in 2017). The 2016 NSIC Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year and 2016 and 2017 NSIC Indoor Track Athlete of the Year, Trost has won nine individual NSIC track titles (six indoor and three outdoor) during her Bulldog career and has been part of one championship-winning relay team as well. She currently holds eight school track records, five of which are also NSIC all-time bests (600-meter, 1,000-meter and mile indoor; 800-meter and 1,500-meter outdoor). Trost, who has collared United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Region recognition on nine lifetime occasions (four cross country, three indoor track and two outdoor track), was sidelined with an injury for the entire 2016 outdoor and 2018 indoor seasons.


Pulver made UMD athletic history this past November when he became the Bulldogs' first NCAA Elite 90 award recipient (presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's championships). The Chippewa Falls, Wis., native, who has been bestowed with a similar honor from the NSIC (Elite 18 award) the past two seasons in cross country, is double majoring in statistics/actuarial science and financial markets and has complied a 4.00 cumulative grade point average. He was also one of eight UMD seniors to earn a NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction Award for 2017-18. As a senior, Pulver helped lead UMD to its first NCAA II Cross Country Championship berth in 13 years after the Bulldogs placed fourth -- their highest finish in program history --  at the NCAA II Central Regional earlier in the fall. UMD's nominee for the NSIC Dr. Britton Scholar-Athlete Award, Pulver laid claim to one individual championship during the 2017-18 indoor season, taking first in the mile at the UW-Superior Yellowjacket Open.




Dauost, a defenseman out of IIe Bizard, Quebec, was selected the 2017-18 Western Collegiate Hockey Association Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year. She maintains a perfect 4.00 cumulative cumulative grade point as a mechanical engineering major.  A three-time WCHA Scholar-Athlete Award recipient, Daoust set a personal-best for scoring this past winter, accumulating 13 points on three goals and 10 assists in 35 games while serving as an alternate team captain. The four-year letterwinner plans to pursue a Master's degree in aerospace engineering once she graduates from UMD. Dauost is  a member of Tau Beta Pi, the National Engineering Honor Society, and has made the Dean's List all seven of her semesters at UMD.




 

Since her arrival on the UMD campus in 2014, Hunt has been involved in an array of volunteering endeavors, including visiting and assisting patients at the Solvay Hospice House in Duluth on a weekly basis for four years. Hunt, a three-time NSIC All-Academic Team qualifier and NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction Award winner, has also volunteered her time with the Salvation Army (bell ringing, Adopt-A-Family and the Rookie Basketball Association), Northern Lakes Food Bank, Amnesty International ("Write For Rights") and the UMD Fitness Fair/  Sidelined for her the entire 2017-18 basketball season after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) this past October, the Grafton, Wis., native has accumulated over 100 volunteer hours during this current school year.

Also at the Dinner with Champions event, Rick Menz was presented with the Bruce Bennett Service Award (exceptional service and commitment to UMD athletics), the Marsh Nelson Bulldog Award (recognizing leadership and support of the Bulldogs in the community) went to Donetta Wickstrom, and Northland Subway, Inc. president Mike Jones received the UMD Cornerstone Award.