Feb. 20, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - For the third straight year, a Penn State men's lacrosse student-athlete has been named a nominee for the Senior CLASS Award. Goalie Austin Kaut (Morton, Pa.) was one of 20 nominees named to the list Thursday morning.
Kaut follows the footsteps of Matthew Mackrides (2012) and Nick Dolik (2013) as candidates for the award and hopes to match or surpass Mackrides' finalist honor. To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
The Senior CLASS Award is an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, which focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their play for in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in the community. Ten finalists will be named midway through the season and put on the official ballot.
Kaut is majoring in business management and has a 3.29 cumulative grade-point average and a two-time honoree of the Academic All-Big Ten team. A three-year letterwinner, Kaut has excelled on the lacrosse field as a three-time All-CAA First Team member and the 2013 Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Jr. Award winner for being the best collegiate goalie. His achievement came last May when he was named to the USILA All-America First Team, Penn State's first first-team honoree in 73 years.
Kaut currently ranks tied for third all-time at Penn State in saves (564) and has started every game of his career (48). He has a goals-against average of 7.84, save percentage of 60.5 and a 29-19 overall record.
A native of suburban Philadelphia, Kaut is the quarterback of the Penn State defense. Entering his collegiate career and through his sophomore season, Kaut was known for his long, flowing curly hair, which he grew out in memory of his grandmother, who passed away his senior year in high school.
Kaut is active in the community at Penn State by volunteering with the Nittany Lion team at Houserville Elementary School as the squad read to students and played games with the children at recess. Last season, Kaut took part in the men's lacrosse-led Match4Kim Swab Drive. The drive was held to help teammate Drew Roper's mother, Kim Roper, find a bone marrow match to fight non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
Ultimately, that swab drive at Penn State, in which over 1,100 members of the community took part, helped find a transplant for a patient. Men's hockey sophomore David Glen missed three games earlier this season for that donation.
Entering this season, Kaut has been named as a preseason All-American and preseason All-CAA Player of the Year. His nomination marks the fifth time a Nittany Lion has been on the Senior CLASS Award nominee list as Pat Heim (2007) and Drew Adams (2009) were also nominees. Heim was a finalist in 2007.
The 12th-ranked Nittany Lions travel to No. 4 Notre Dame for a crucial Saturday clash at Arlotta Stadium. Game time is set for 3 p.m. with free live streaming and stats available.