June 19, 2008

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV men's golf team had four student-athletes earn Spring 2008 Academic All-Mountain West Conference honors, the conference announced Thursday.

Senior C.J. Gatto (3.37 cumulative grade point average in journalism & media studies), sophomore Brett Kanda (3.18 in journalism & media studies), senior Matt Kinsinger (3.80 in finance) and senior Jarred Texter (3.41 in journalism & media studies) all earned the recognition.

Gatto was named to the team for a third straight year, Kanda was selected for a second straight time, Kinsinger is making his third appearance on the list and Texter has made the list four straight years.

Also, Kinsinger and sophomore Johnny Pinjuv (3.96 in accounting) were named recipients of the 2007-08 MWC Scholar-Athlete Award. The scholar-athlete award is the highest academic honor bestowed by the conference. Kinsinger has now won the award four straight years, while this is Pinjuv's second honor.

Kinsinger was named academic all-district by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) in May.

To be eligible for selection to the Academic All-MWC team, student-athletes must have completed at least one academic term at the school while maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better, and be a starter or significant contributor on their team.

To be eligible for selection for the scholar-athlete award, student-athletes must have completed at least two academic terms at the school, while maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or better and have participated in varsity competition in an NCAA-sponsored sport.