Walker Earns Senior Scholar Athlete Accolades

TOWSON, Md. — Kathryn Walker (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth-Whitemarsh) has been named the Landmark Senior Scholar Athlete for the sport of cross country, becoming the fourth Goucher cross country athlete to receive the prestigious recognition.

To qualify for the award, recipients must have a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.20. Award winners are selected by a committee of Landmark Conference officers, athletic directors and sports information directors.

Walker returned to the cross country team this season after spending all of 2012-13 studying abroad in Paris. As a senior, she placed 36th at the Landmark Championships to help lead Goucher to a fourth place finish at the meet. Her best 6K time as a Gopher came during her sophomore season, when she completed the Coach Achtzehn Classic in 25:08.91. She additionally finished a career-best 16th (out of 72 runners) in the Landmark Championships that year.

A two-time Landmark Academic Honor Roll member, Walker currently possesses a 3.83 GPA as a French major with a concentration in culture and civilization. She is also minoring in art history. When she is not running for Goucher's cross country or track teams, Walker serves as a Writing Center tutor, a French student instructor and an editor for The Quindecim.

While studying abroad, Walker interned at a children's art museum (La Musée en Herbe) and for an online literature review magazine, where she wrote a 45-page research paper about the cultural, historic and artistic influences of pastry on Parisian society. She kept up with her running in France as well, placing second in her age group in the 2012 Semi-Marathon de Boulogne-Billancourt.

Walker joins Fraley Coles (2007), Adam Scipione (2010) and Hadley Couraud (2012) as Goucher's cross country Senior Scholar Athlete winners. The Gophers have now had 11 athletes win the award since the conference's inception in 2007.

Senior Scholar Athlete awards are handed out at the end of each sports season. The six fall winners are being announced throughout the next two weeks, concluding with men's cross country on Dec. 19.