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Lauren Endersen earned earned first-team recognition on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VII team.
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June 4, 2009
SALT LAKE CITY - Four members of the University of Utah Track & Field team were named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII Track and Field and Cross Country teams, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Seniors Lauren Endersen and Chelsea DiGrazia were first-team selections and will be placed on the national ballot for Academic All-America honors, while Alyssa Abbott and Josefin Berg were named to the second team.
"This is a great honor for Lauren, Chelsea, Alyssa and Josefin and our entire program," Utah head coach Kyle Kepler said. "These girls are the embodiment of student-athletes. They put a lot of effort into the classroom and into their athletic performance. They live to a very high standard that they have set for our program. It's been a pleasure to be able to work with young women of their character and talent level."
Endersen was an ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic Third-team Academic All-American in 2008. The West Jordan, Utah native is a Presidential Scholar who will enroll in the Ohio State University Medical School next fall. She scored in the 99.4 percentile on MCAT with a 39 on her first attempt. Endersen finished as the runner-up in the 5,000-meter run (18:28.04) and took eighth place overall in the 3,000-meter run at the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships with a life-time best of 10:01.57 and scored a team point for Utah. At this season's conference outdoor championships, Endersen took fifth in the 10,000-meter run and earned four points for Utah with a time of 39:02.17 and ran the 5,000-meter event with a time of 18:26.38 to earn seventh place overall.
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Abbott was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII selection for the second consecutive season. Abbott was named to the 2009 USTFCCCA Division I Scholar Athlete of the Year list and is a three-time NCAA West Region qualifier. This fall, Abbott finished 76th in the NCAA Cross Country Championships with a time of 21:00.5. She set a new cross country personal best and qualified for nationals at the NCAA Mountain Region Championship after finishing in 20:52.4 and placing in ninth place overall. After qualifying for nationals, Abbott finished 76th out of 255 competitors (21:00.5) at the NCAA Championships. Abbott finished fourth at the MWC Championships to earn first-team All-MWC honors.
Berg finished second in the hammer throw at the 2009 MWC Championships and ranks second in school history in the event with a distance of 199' 4". At last weekend's NCAA West Regional, Berg finished in eighth place finish with a distance of 187'4" after her final throws. Berg's top-eight finish at the regional earned the first point in the team standings for the Utes. In 2008, she earned academic all-conference honors and was second on the conference outdoor list. Berg placed 22nd overall at the 2008 NCAA Track & Field Championships with a hammer throw of 185'10" and registered a podium finish in third place at the MWC Championships in 2008 with a 182'3" toss to earn All-MWC accolades.
To be eligible, student-athletes must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his or her current institution and be nominated by his or her sports information director. Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.
