STOCKTON, Calif. - Fresno State sophomore attacker Elisa Grim has been awarded the Elite 90 Award, the NCAA announced Thursday evening at its pre-championship banquet ahead of this weekend's National Collegiate Water Polo Championship. Grim is the recipient of the Elite 90 award for the 2023 NCAA Division I Women's Water Polo Championship.
The Elite 90, an award founded by the NCAA, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. The Elite 90 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's championships.
Eligible student-athletes are sophomores or above academically who have participated in a sport for at least two years with their school. All ties are broken by the number of credits completed.
Grim is the first student-athlete from Fresno State to ever be awarded with the Elite 90 honor. She is also the first water polo student-athlete from a current Golden Coast Conference school to have the award presented to them since 2019, and just the third all-time. Pacific and LMU have past recipients, but the award was earned when the programs were in the West Coast Conference.
The programs in this year's NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship are Stanford, USC, Cal, UCLA, UC Irvine, Fresno State, Princeton and Biola.
Fresno State faces No. 2 USC in the NCAA quarterfinal tomorrow at 4 p.m.