BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Colgate University senior Eli Zackheim (Portland, Ore./Lincoln H.S.) was named the 2001 Patriot League Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the third time in his collegiate career.

He is the first golfer and the fifth athlete, representing 22 varsity sports, in the 11-year history of the Patriot League to win the Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award three times in the same sport.

Zackheim is the only Colgate golfer to win the PL Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.  He also earned Verizon/CoSida Second Team All-District Academic All-America honors this season.

Zackheim is a senior environmental economics and biology major with a 3.42 cumulative grade point average (GPA). He has been a member of the CU Dean's

List the past two years, the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll all four years, a member of the biology and economics honor societies and was nominated for the NCAA post-graduate scholarship.

On the course, Zackheim finished among the Top 10 finishers in 13 of 14 tournaments this season, including two individual victories in the Mike Bello Invitational and the Williams Invitational and had four other second-place finishes. Zackheim is the only repeat champion in the 41-year history of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) championship.

He broke the team record for stroke average for the season last year (75.5), then bettered that with a 73.25 scoring average this year. He fired four rounds under par this season, including a four-under-par 69 at the Robert Trent Jones Course in Ithaca, N.Y. His best career round was a course-record seven-under-par 65 at CU's Seven Oaks Golf Course, which hosted the NCAA East Regional championships and the 1977 NCAA national championship tournament.

To be nominated for the League Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, the student-athlete must be at least a sophomore with a 3.2 cumulative GPA and be a starter or key reserve for her team. Scholar-Athlete of the Year voting is conducted among the League's sports information directors and the Patriot League staff.