At Carolina, the term “student-athlete” carries some additional weight. Not only do student-athletes for Carolina’s 28 varsity sports excel on the playing field, they also are faced with the rigorous academic course load that comes when you attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While many Carolina athletes excel in both realms, men’s track & field and cross country runner Will Coogan and men’s lacrosse midfielder PJ Zinsner can truly be considered “best of the best,” as two of Carolina’s most recent winners of the Elite 90 award.

In 2010, the NCAA established the award, which is given to recognize the true essence of the student-athlete. The award honors the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in their sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among their peers. The Elite 90 is presented each year to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s 90 championships.

In practice, it’s the ideal award for a Carolina student-athlete to win, because not only does it focus on a championship pedigree, but also excellence in the classroom. Since the award’s inception, a Tar Heel has won the award 15 times, good for third most of any NCAA Division I athletic program, and more than double the total of any other ACC member institution.

For both Coogan, a junior majoring in biology, and Zinsner, a senior double majoring in economics and math, the commitment to academics comes with the territory of being a student athlete at Carolina.

“I think the great opportunity of coming to a school like Carolina humbled me a little bit and I want to take full advantage of that,” said Coogan. “I wanted to learn how to adjust my lifestyle, so I could continue to try to work hard, to accomplish some goals that I wanted to do in school.”

“I started really taking academics seriously in high school,” Zinsner added. “I knew that if I wanted to play for a top program like Carolina, I had to be prepared, and I carried that with me into college. There’s also a level of competitiveness that I have in academics where I want to be the best.”

That competitive drive may come naturally for Zinsner – he’s the third of four children, and all of his siblings played or currently compete in college athletics. His older brother and sister played golf and lacrosse at Yale, and his younger sister currently plays lacrosse at Holy Cross.

Both student-athletes credit their teammates and coaches for continuing to instill their drive and discipline in the classroom.

“I think I’ve heard a couple of our coaches say, ‘how you do anything is how you do everything.’ It’s a pretty common catchphrase, but I kind of take it to heart a little bit,” said Zinsner, who boasts a 3.98 GPA. “It’s a matter of being consistent every day, knowing, in both school and lacrosse, that if you take a day off, take a practice off, or zone out in class and don’t absorb anything, it will hurt you down the line. Having that perspective has helped me really try to focus on what I’m doing every day.”

Coogan, whose GPA is just 1/100th of a point higher at 3.99, echoes the sentiments.

“The main thing is just being intentional with the time you have. That’s our whole team. Coach Miltenberg really wants us to be intentional and purposeful. Those are two of our biggest mottos,” he said. “I think having that attitude towards track and cross country seeps into my other aspects of life. It helps me take that mindset to academics, relationships, and other things that I want to apply that to.

Both student-athletes have similar schedules in their respective sports – morning practices and classes midday through the afternoon, freeing up the evenings for studying and coursework. But, according to Coogan, the “off time” is just as important for physical recovery.

“During the week, there’s less of those big chunks of time during the week that I can use. I think using Saturday and Sunday efficiently is important,” he said. “A big thing with track and cross country is what you do outside of practice is just as important as what you do in practice. Getting recovered and things like that. So, it’s not too beneficial to stay up till midnight every night. I’ve had to make decisions before where it was, ‘Okay, I could stay up for another hour to study, but honestly might be better for me as a whole to just get good rest every night.’”

Because the Elite 90 award is presented during the NCAA Championships, the obvious athletic focus is on the competition. With that in mind, it’s funny to note that neither Zinsner or Coogan had any idea their award was Elite 90 award was coming – or that it even existed.

“They actually announced it at Cross Country Nationals after the race while they were going through all of the awards for the competitors. I didn’t know it was a thing, my team didn’t know it was a thing. I was just surprised as everybody!” Coogan recalled with a laugh. “I think my coach knew it was coming. So, while they were starting to announce it, he told us to all be quiet, which was surprising. After I got the award, the team was all congratulating me and poking a little fun at me. It was pretty funny on the way home.”

“I was actually caught completely surprised by it. I didn’t know what the Elite 90 award was, or that it existed,” Zinsner added. “It was just after practice at the Final Four – we were just talking as a team and all of a sudden, my name and face were up on like the videoboard in the stadium. I had no idea what was happening. Then, a few people from the NCAA told me that I had won the Elite 90 award in front of the team. The amount of support I got from my teammates was awesome.”

As Coogan and Zinsner both begin their 2022-2023 campaigns, the age-old question that plagues every college student was asked – “what do you hope to do after your time at Carolina comes to a close?” Both student-athletes were coy in their responses.

“I’m planning on taking advantage of my COVID year and using my extra year of lacrosse eligibility,” Zinsner said. “Beyond that, I’m definitely looking to get a job, and still kind of figuring out exactly what I want to do. I worked in real estate this past summer and enjoyed it, so potentially something along those lines in finance.”

“I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do after college. I would love to get the level of running where I could run farther after college. I’d also love to keep trying new things while at Carolina,” said Coogan. “Outside of the classes for my bio major, I’m trying other classes too because I really don’t know what I want to do. I know that I am interested in biology classes which is a good starting point for sure, but I don’t know what I want to do when I graduate. Luckily, I’ve got some time to figure that out!”

No matter what they decide to do, it’s clear that the drive and discipline that led both Zinsner and Coogan to their Elite 90 awards will set them up well for the future.