May 27, 2009

QUEENS, N.Y. - Red Storm lacrosse goaltender Gavin Buckley and Renee Cloutier of the women's golf team, were selected by St. John's Student Development for Athletes as the 2008-09 Institutional ECAC Robbins Scholar-Athlete Award winners.

As institutional winners, these two rising-senior student-athletes are automatically nominated for the ECAC Robbins Scholar-Athlete Award (Division I).

Buckley was St. John's starting goaltender for the lacrosse team. He earned All-ECAC weekly honors three times in the 2009 season, including Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors, following St. John's upset of then-No. 5 Georgetown (Feb. 28). He earned honor roll mentions on March 16 for his 18-save performance against Loyola and again on April 13 for his career-best 19 saves at Penn State. Buckley was monumental in the Red Storm's six-goal Penn-State comeback as he allowed just one goal in the second half of play to send the game into overtime. He blanked 140 shots with a .483 save percentage between the pipes this season, aided by six double-digit save efforts. Buckley earned the Gold Medallion on the St. John's Athletic Director's Honor Roll for a perfect 4.0 GPA in Fall 2008 and the Silver Medallion for Spring 2008.

Cloutier was a leader for the Red Storm on and off the course all season. The junior has been a strong performer for St. John's, as she took the title at the Princeton Invitational to open the fall season and came in fourth at the EKU El Diablo Intercollegiate to open the spring campaign. Cloutier also tied her personal and program-best record for lowest round with a 69 at the EKU Intercollegiate. The junior once again led the Red Storm at the BIG EAST Championship, as she tied for 11th overall and helped the team to a sixth-place finish. She was recently named to the 2009 BIG EAST All-Conference Team.

The ECAC Robbins Scholar-Athlete Awards, sponsored by the Cincinnati-based sports surfaces company, honors the outstanding academic and athletic achievements of student-athletes representing ECAC schools in Division I, II and III. The individuals nominated by each member institution will be designated as institutional ECAC Robbins Scholar-Athlete Award winners. One male and one female student-athlete from each division are selected based on extraordinary achievements in academics, athletics and community service.

In the past two years, St. John's has had three Division I winners, including Jeff Grantham (baseball), Luther Clement (men's fencing) and Brittany Lambertson (women's golf).