RPI's Christian Kapp Remains on National Watch List

2017 Nov 8

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) student-athlete Christian Kapp of Westchester 10501 is among 41 student-athletes to be recognized on the Fred Mitchell Award Watch List for October. The list is comprised of place-kickers based on excellence on the field and for continued community service.

A senior, Kapp (Iona Prep.) was on the organization's original list in August. In nine games this season, he has made 5 of 9 field goals, including a long of 44 yards, and 35 of 35 point-after-touchdowns. He also has a two-point conversion run and leads the team in points with 52. On kickoffs, the third-year starter averages 63.0 yards on 49 attempts with 29 touchbacks.

In last week's game, a 63-14 win over the University of Rochester, Kapp tied the school record with nine PATs. He reached the 100 point-after-touchdown milestone against the 'Jackets and now has 108 in 110 career attempts, a 98.2% success rate. Kapp was named to the Liberty League Weekly Honor Roll for the second time. He has been the conference's Special Teams Performer of the Week twice.

As a junior he was 9 of 12 on field goals and 32 of 32 on point-after-touchdowns in 11 games, leading the Engineers in scoring with 59 points. Kapp's 51 kickoffs went for 2,943 yards for a 57.7 yard average. He had nine touchbacks on his way to earning All-Liberty League Second Team honors and RPI's Special Teams Player of the Year award. He is third in school history, trailing Eric Byrne '01 (135) and Andrew Franks '15 (115).

The industrial and management engineering major also recently earned Liberty League All-Academic honors and has been selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team in the past. Kapp, a business and management minor, is a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, including a Halloween event for area children last month, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He also co-founded Students for Service, which focuses on community volunteerism on a weekly basis.

Kapp spent this summer on an internship at W.L. Gore & Associates as an operations specialist. He has also interned at Irving Tissue.

The recipient of the Fred Mitchell Award is announced in mid-December.

Founded in 1824, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is America's oldest technological research university. For nearly two centuries, the Institute has been a driving force behind breakthroughs in engineering and science in virtually every arena-from transportation and infrastructure to business, medicine, outer space, and cyberspace.

As it approaches its bicentennial anniversary, the Institute continues to define The New Polytechnic, a new paradigm for teaching, learning, and research that uses advanced technologies to enable fresh collaborations across disciplines, sectors, and regions, in order to answer the global challenges of our day.