May 23, 2008
Center Valley, Pa. - Ten Patriot League student-athletes have been honored for their academic and athletic performance with a selection to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Team for at-large sports, as selected and announced by the Collegiate Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Thursday.
Patriot League schools were represented on the District I and District II teams, with six first-team selections. There were 10 first-team selections from each district, with separate lists for the men's and women's teams. Navy led all schools with four Patriot League student-athletes on the lists, while Bucknell and Colgate each had two League representatives and Army and Lehigh both garnered one. Navy, Bucknell and Lehigh are all part of District II, while Army and Colgate are each in District I.
Three of Navy's Patriot League student-athletes earned first-team plaudits, as junior swimmer Kelly Zahalka, senior golfer Chris Renninger and junior rower Kerry Hannon were all honored. Zahalka has achieved a 4.00 GPA during each of her six completed semesters at Navy and is ranked third in her class on the Academy's Overall Order of Merit (a combination of academic and military rankings). Hannon has attained a 4.00 GPA in a pair of semesters at Navy and has accrued a 3.63 cumulative GPA as an applied math major. Ranked No. 1 in the academic order of merit and fifth overall among his class of more than 1,000 students, golf team captain Renninger boasts a 4.00 cumulative grade-point average in chemistry. He was named the Patriot League's Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2007. Senior rower Fiona McFarland garnered second-team honors.
Bucknell had one first team and one second-team honoree on the women's side. Senior field hockey player Kelly Hoffman was named to the first team after graduating with a double major in English and psychology and a cumulative grade-point average of 3.93. Senior rower Jennie Trayes was a second-team choice.
Lehigh's first-team selection, senior Christy Smith, starred in both field hockey and lacrosse during her accomplished Patriot League career for the Mountain Hawks. An integrated business and industrial engineering major, Smith recently graduated from Lehigh with an overall grade point average of 3.89. She was honored as the Lehigh Athletic Department's Graduating Scholar Athlete Award winner in April, the highest honor given out by the department
Army senior golfer Pat Beverly was selected to the first team in District I. An Economics major, Beverly has a grade-point average of 3.90 and is a two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American.
Colgate had a pair of honorees from its Patriot League teams, as junior golfer Montek Mayal and junior rower Meredith Remmer were both named to the second team.
To be nominated, athletes must be at least a sophomore, a starter or significant reserve with a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.20. The at-large team includes athletes from the Patriot League sports of golf, lacrosse, field hockey, rowing, swimming and tennis. Schools are limited to three nominations for each gender.
The six first-team honorees will now be placed on the national ballot for Academic All-America recognition, along with the other first-team picks in each of the eight districts. Voting is done by members of CoSIDA and national ballots will be open May 28.
