Twenty-Three Wellesley Student-Athletes Named Fall Academic All-Conference

WELLESLEY, Mass. -- The New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) has named 23 Wellesley student-athletes to the Academic All-Conference Team for the fall. Leading the way for the Blue, nine members of the cross country team were honored, while the soccer team had eight honorees. The field hockey team also placed three on the list, while the tennis and volleyball teams each had one player named.

From the cross country team, sophomores Alexandra Dunn (Montpelier, VT) and Vanessa Wilkins (Bellefontaine, OH) are both undeclared majors and first time award winners.  Also receiving the award for the first time are juniors Alexandra Grzywna (Framingham, MA), Jane Lodwick (Chesterland, OH), and Margaret Wehner (San Francisco, CA).  Grzywna is an English major, Lodwick is a Chemistry major, and Wehner is a Biological Sciences major.  Junior Skye Roberts (Ellicott City, MD), a History major, won the award for a second year in a row.  Receiving the award for the third year in a row are seniors Cristina Lucas (Glendale, CA), senior Sara Putterman (Bethesda, MD), and senior Ada Smith (Stoughton, WI).  Lucas is a Political Science major, Putterman is an Art History and Religion double major, and Smith is an Anthropology and Environmental Studies major.

Representing the field hockey team, senior Alli Robbins (North Bennington, VT) and sophomore Becky Hamilton (New York, NY) are receiving the award for the first time.  Robbins is a Biological Sciences major, while Hamilton has not yet declared a major.  Junior Kaitlyn Kirkaldy (Middlebury, VT) has won the award for the second year in a row. She is an International Relations-Political Science major.  Senior Emily Lewis (Weston, CT) is a Biological Sciences major receiving the award for the third straight year.

On the soccer team, sophomores Chloe Breider (Incline Village, NV) and Emily DiVito (St. Petersburg, FL) are both undeclared majors and first-time Academic All-Conference athletes.  Also receiving the award for the first time are seniors Gayron Berman (Bethesda, MD) and Kara Lungmus (Mercer Island, WA).  Berman is an International Relations-History major and Lungmus is an American Studies and French double major.  Lena Cardoso (Seattle, WA) who is an Economics major is also a first time award winner.  Juniors Ava Mokhtari (Eden Prairie, MN) and Emily Wilson (Portland, OR) have received the award for the second straight year.  Mokhtari is a Biological Chemistry major and Wilson is a Chemistry major.  Senior Megan Turchi (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA), an American studies major, is a third year All-Academic winner.

Junior Kendall Tada (Hilo, HI) is a second time All-Academic award winner representing the tennis team.  She is a Biological Chemistry major.  From the volleyball team, sophomore Lindsey Menichella (Charlotte, NC) is an undeclared major receiving the award for the first time.

In order to be named to the Academic All-Conference team, a student must have, along with completing an entire season as a member of her varsity team, earned a cumulative GPA of 3.5/4.0 or 4.35/5/0 after the spring 2012 semester and achieved second-year academic status.

The ten members of the New England Men’s and Women’s Athletic Conference are Babson College, Clark University, U.S Coast Guard Academy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Springfield College, Wellesley College, Wheaton College, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.