By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – After completing one of the best cross-country careers in Great Northwest Athletic Conference history last fall, Alaska’s Kendall Kramer added a final major award to her collegiate resume on Friday.
 
The conference’s athletic directors voted the Nanook senior the 2024-25 GNAC Female Scholar Athlete of the Year, recognizing a long list of achievements both academically and athletically. A graduate this spring, Kramer held a 3.89 grade point average while completing her degree in biological sciences. She was a four-time academic all-conference selection, a College Sports Communicators academic all-district pick and is a likely CSC Academic All-American when those awards are announced in July.
 
Her career on the course was even more impressive than her academic resume, as she capped things off with an NCAA Division II national runner-up finish in the fall of 2024. That came after Kramer won her third consecutive GNAC individual cross-country title and finished as the runner-up at the NCAA West Region Championships. In her four-year career at her hometown university, Kramer participated in four NCAA Championships and logged three All-American finishes.
 
Saving her best season for last, Kramer kicked off the postseason portion of the schedule by dominating the field of 93 runners at the GNAC Championships on Oct. 26 in Bellingham, Wash. Cruising through the 6k course in 20:32.3 minutes, she won the race by more than 20 seconds ahead of teammate Rosie Fordham (20:54.3 minutes). She became just the second woman in conference history to win three consecutive cross country individual titles, joining four-time winner Jessica Pixler of Seattle Pacific (2006-09). Kramer also won the event as a sophomore in 2022 in Monmouth, Ore., and as a junior in 2023 in Anchorage, Alaska. She joined a short list of women to earn all-conference honors four times in their careers, becoming the 10th to achieve that feat since the conference was founded in 2001. It was the first such occurrence by a Nanook, as Kramer placed third as a freshman in 2021 before winning the next three conference titles.
 
With the field scaled up to 192 runners at the NCAA regional meet, Kramer put forth a similar display of excellence. Although her teammate Fordham emerged with a win in a conference-regional record 19:52.7 minutes, Kramer was right on her heels as she clocked in at 20:06.9 minutes on the championship course in Billings, Mont., on Nov. 9. In four years competing at the regional meet, Kramer finished no worse than fifth place (as a freshman in 2021), as she sandwiched a win in 2023 with runner-up finishes in both 2022 and 2024. She became just the seventh woman in conference history and the first Nanook to garner four cross-country all-region awards in her collegiate career and was the first to do so since Simon Fraser’s Rebecca Bassett in 2013-16.
 
If Kramer’s career trajectory was any indicator of how her national championship race would go, then the result was not a surprise in the slightest. She took 72nd as a freshman in 2021, before finishing eighth as a sophomore in 2022 and 23rd as a junior in 2023 to garner two straight All-America honors. Toeing the line for the final time on Nov. 23 in Sacramento, Calif., Kramer was at her best among a field of 261 competitors. She clocked a 6k time of 20:30.7 minutes, finishing only behind Grand Valley State’s Lauren Kiley who edged Kramer with a time of 20:28.5 minutes for the national title.
 
It was the best finish at the national meet by a GNAC runner since Alaska Anchorage’s Caroline Kurgat won the 2017 national title, and it was far and away the best-ever finish by a Nanook at the race. Overall Kramer became the fifth woman to finish second or first at the national meet, joining three-time national champion Pixler (2007-09), 2009 and 2010 runner-up Sarah Porter of Western Washington, 2012 runner-up Susan Tanui of Alaska Anchorage and national champion Kurgat (2017). She was also the fifth in conference history to earn at least three All-America honors, joining Pixler, Porter, Kurgat and UAA’s Ruth Keino (2009-11).
 
The efforts from Kramer and fellow All-American Fordham, who finished eighth at the national meet, helped the Nanook women to their best-ever team finish as a GNAC representative as they placed 13th overall. Kramer is the first woman in school history to earn the conference’s top individual academic award. It is the fifth time that the honor has been bestowed upon a cross-country runner, as Kramer joined Seattle Pacific’s Annika Esvelt (2024), Central Washington’s Alexa Shindruk (2019), UAA’s Kurgat (2018) and SPU’s Pixler (2010).
 
While Kramer’s skiing resume was not factored into her consideration in winning the GNAC Female Scholar Athlete award, as that sport competes outside of the conference, her resume is so impressive that it merits mentioning as well. She was the 2025 NCAA freestyle national champion, a freestyle first-team All-American and a classic second-team All-American.
 
The GNAC Scholar Athlete of the Year award is presented annually to one male and one female deemed to have achieved the highest performance both academically and athletically. Northwest Nazarene track & field star Laurenz Waldbauer was named the GNAC Male Athlete of the Year earlier this week. The conference athlete of the year awards will be announced next week.
 
2025 GNAC Athlete of the Year Awards
GNAC Male Scholar Athlete of the Year – Laurenz Waldbauer, NNU, Track & Field
GNAC Female Scholar Athlete of the Year – Kendall Kramer, UAF, Cross Country
GNAC Male Athlete of the Year – TBA June 24, 2025
GNAC Female Athlete of the Year – TBA June 26, 2025