321 Fall Student-Athletes Receive Honors 

HADLEY, Mass. - The New England Small College Athletic Conference announced its 2006 Fall All-Academic selections today, with 321 student-athletes that participated in a fall sport earning All-Academic recognition. To be honored, a student-athlete must have reached junior 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.

Of the 321 student-athletes that received Fall All-Academic accolades, a total of 110, more than one-third, had the honor bestowed upon them last autumn. 49 student-athletes on the 2006 Fall All-Academic squad also received NESCAC All-Conference recognition this past season.

Of note in the Fall All-Academic group are a pair of senior soccer players and a junior runner that earned individual NESCAC honors this fall. Amherst senior forward Amy Armstrong (Avon, Conn.) received All-Academic recognition for the second year in a row after being named the 2006 NESCAC Women’s Soccer Player of the Year only a week ago. Armstrong, a psychology and pre-med major at Amherst, is in the midst of a career year with the Jeffs, scoring a team-leading 12 goals while adding in four assists for 28 points through 17 outings. Armstrong has more than doubled her career points total while helping her club reach the sectional round of the 2006 NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament this weekend.

Williams senior midfielder Patrick Huffer (Boulder, Colo.) also earned All-Academic honors for the second year in a row while coming away as the 2006 NESCAC Men’s Soccer Player of the Year. Huffer, a biology major, helped lead the Ephs to their third NESCAC Men’s Soccer crown in the past four years this fall with a league-best 14 goals. He enters this weekend’s NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament sectional already ahead of last year’s team-leading points total with 30 points through 16 appearances this season.

Making her first appearance on the Fall All-Academic squad is Tufts junior Katy O’Brien (North Easton, Mass.), the 2006 NESCAC Women’s Cross Country Most Outstanding Performer. O’Brien’s first-place showing at the NESCAC Women’s Cross Country Championship was the first of her career at Tufts, as the Jumbos placed just five points behind NESCAC champ Amherst in what was the second-closest finish to the event in the past 10 years. It was also the second-best finish for Tufts ever, as the 1987 squad won the race 19 years ago. O’Brien will look to help her team garner its best finish ever at the NCAA Championship this weekend at Wilmington College in West Chester, Ohio.

Amherst  |  Bates  |  Bowdoin  |  Colby  |  Connecticut College  |  Hamilton
Middlebury  |  Trinity  |  Tufts  |  Wesleyan  |  Williams