photo:  Jared Kiesow (Horicon/Horicon) with NCAA Asst. Dir. of Championships Holly Shielley (Leah Thyne photo)

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater senior defensive back, Jared Kiesow (Horicon/Horicon), received the NCAA's Elite 89 Award at the Spotlight on Champions banquet at the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, the NCAA Division III football championship, in Salem, Virginia Thursday evening.  The award is given to the student athlete with the highest cumulative grade point at the final event at each of the eighty-nine National Collegiate Athletic Association championship events.

Kiesow is a senior elementary education major with a 3.89 (4.0 scale) cumulative grade point.  He is a Karl and Doris Zahn Scholarship recipient, has earned UW-W's Student Athlete Achievement Award three years, is a multiple honoree on the Dean's List, and been on the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Scholastic Honor Roll three years. Kiesow participated in the Souls for Soles shoe drive during the 2009-2010 school year, and is a Bible study leader.  

Kiesow is a repeat honoree.  He also received the award, then known as the Elite 88, at the Stagg Bowl in 2010.  Earlier this month he also earned First Team Academic All-America recognition from the College Sports Information Directors of America, a project sponsored by Capital One.  That selection, based on academic excellence combined with significant athletic performance and campus/community involvement, is chosen on a competitive national ballot.

Kiesow is a two year starter at defensive back.  In each of the four years he has been on the team UW-Whitewater has won the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship and earned a berth in the NCAA finals.  The Warhawks have advanced to the fifth round of the playoffs, the Stagg Bowl, all four years, winning the national title in 2009 and 2010.  UW-W will face the University of Mount Union in the 2011 Stagg Bowl Friday in Salem.