EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) – UW-Eau Claire women's diver Sara Axness (So.-Eau Claire, Wis./Memorial) and football player Clint Larsen (So.-Eau Claire, Wis./Memorial) have been named Athletes of the Month for October 2013, an honor sponsored by the Wisconsin Army National Guard and the UW-Eau Claire ROTC.

The awards were recently presented to the student-athletes by Brad Frahm, UW-Eau Claire Assistant Professor of Military Science. Each month during the 2013-14 season, two Blugold athletes – one male, one female – will be selected Athletes of the Month. The recipients are chosen by the UW-Eau Claire Student-Athlete Advisory Committee from a pool of the Athletes of the Week.

During the month of October, Axness was selected as her team's Athlete of the Week for diving once. She also earned WIAC Athlete of the Week honors the same week.

Oct. 14-27: Axness led the way this weekend for the Blugold divers against UW-Stevens Point and St. Cloud State (Minn.) by winning both the one and three-meter events with scores of 288.50 and 297.20, respectively. Her mark on the three-meter board was a new pool record, beating out Blugold Hall of Famer Sara Mulatz, who held the record of 293.20 since 1995. It was also just one point shy of the school record, which Mulatz also holds. The marks were also national qualify scores. The prior weekend as the Blugolds opened the season against Minnesota-Mankato, Axness won the three-meter dive with a score of 249.10 while taking third in the one-meter with 238 points.

Larsen was named a team Athlete of the Week twice during October while he was picked as the WIAC Athlete of the Week for special teams on Oct. 8.

Sept. 30-Oct. 6: Special Teams - Larsen returned a kickoff for a touchdown in the third quarter against UW-Platteville on Saturday to help put the Blugolds up 27-21. He took the kick 98 yards, the Blugolds' first kick return for a touchdown since Nov. 11, 1987, the longest in school history (previous long was 97 yards by Mike Zeihen in 1980), the third longest in NCAA Division III this season, and the sixth longest in conference history. Larsen also recorded three tackles on the special teams.

Oct. 7-13: Offense - Larsen scored both Blugold touchdowns, rushing, and was second on the team in both rushing and receptions against UW-Stevens Point in a 23-17 overtime loss Saturday. He finished the game with eight carries for 77 yards and scored a 26-yard touchdown in the second quarter and a 16-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter which helped the Blugolds tie the game at 17. He also had three receptions for five yards.

-KM-