Blue Fencing Named USFCA All-Academic Team, 13 Earn Individual Honors
WELLESLEY, Mass. – The United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) has announced its 2023 academic awards and Wellesley College fencing has been named an All-Academic Team. In addition, 13 members of the Blue earned individual USFCA All-Academic honors, including seven recognized as Scholars of Distinction.
Wellesley and head coach Rob Charlton earned women's Team All-Academic honors with a combined GPA of 3.42 during the 2022-23 campaign. This season was the third consecutive year the Blue have earned Team All-Academic honors. The Blue were one of twenty-two collegiate women's teams to receive All-Academic recognition for their combined in-season team GPA.
The USFCA recognizes the individual student-athletes and teams on the basis of their combined Fall and Spring semester GPAs. Individual All-Academic Team honors are presented to those student-athletes at member institutions who had an in-season GPA of 3.3 or higher. Scholar of Distinction honors are presented to those student-athletes at member institutions who had an in-season GPA of 3.7 or higher.
Seniors Alexia Gilioli (New York, N.Y.), Hunter Dodrill (Boca Raton, Fla.) and Sejal Saxena (Chappaqua, N.Y.) and junior Junior Edith Po (Bernardsville, N.J.) each earned individual All-Academic honors for the third time in their respective careers. 2023 was also the third consecutive year both Dodrill and Po were recognized as Scholars of Distinction.
Senior Isabella Stewart (Scarsdale, N.Y.) and sophomore Ella Boodell (Edgemont, N.Y.) each earned individual All-Academic and Scholar of Distinction honors a second time, while senior Kimberley Kimura (Los Angeles, Calif.), sophomores Mia Chao (Washington, D.C.), Makana Burch (Portland, Ore.) and Elena Vona (Millstone, N.J.) and first years Gina Huang (Taipei, Taiwan), Lily Millard (Selkirk, N.Y.) and Sharon Huang (Toronto, Ontario) each earned the honor for the first time.
In all, the USFCA All-Academic Team includes 558 student-athletes with 360 receiving recognition as Scholars of Distinction. The complete list of Wellesley honorees can be found below (*indicates number of times named to USFCA All-Academic team):
- Hunter Dodrill '23 (Scholar of Distinction) ***
- Alexia Gilioli '23 ***
- Kimberley Kimura '23 (Scholar of Distinction)
- Sejal Saxena '23 ***
- Isabella Stewart '23 (Scholar of Distinction) **
- Edith Po '24 (Scholar of Distinction) ***
- Makana Burch'25 (Scholar of Distinction)
- Mia Chao '25
- Elena Vona '25
- Ella Boodell '25 (Scholar of Distinction) **
- Gina Huang '26 (Scholar of Distinction)
- Sharon Huang '26
- Lily Millard '26