14 Blue Crew Members Honored by ECAC/NIRC as All-Academic Selections

WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Fourteen members of the Wellesley College crew team were honored by the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) this week, earning recognition for their work in the classroom as National Invitational Rowing Championship (NIRC) Stewards All-Academic Team selections.

In addition, Blue senior Ildi Gaal earned both All-ECAC and All-Academic team honors for Wellesley. Gaal, who rowed in the five seat of the Blue's second varsity boat at ECAC's, was honored as one of 42 selections to the ECAC All-Star team.

Four Blue seniors were named to the All-Academic team, including Gaal, Maggie West, Becca Kimball, and Caeden Brynie. Gaal, a neuroscience major, and West, a Women's and Gender Studies major, earned the All-Academic recognition for the third time in their careers. Kimball, a double major in Economics and Spanish, makes her second appearance on the academic squad, while Brynie, a History major, earns her first award.

Blue junior Emma Reuder was also named to the Stewards All-Academic team. A two-time honoree, she is a history major at Wellesley.

Nine Wellesley sophomores made their first appearances on the All-Academic team. They included: Emily Ahn (Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences), Alexi Block-Gorman (Mathematics), Meg Roberts (Economics & French), Sahar Ibrahim (Anthropology and Biological Sciences), Alessandra Zaldivar-Giuffredi (Political Science), Grace Howland (Economics), Aly Randall (Psychology), Olivia Thayer (History), and Charlotte Weiss (Spanish).

To receive All-Academic honors, a student-athlete must have reached sophomore academic standing and be a varsity letter winner with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.35. A transfer student must have completed one year of study at the institution.

Wellesley crew is back in action at the 2014 NCAA Rowing Championships, hosted at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Blue will compete beginning May 30th.