From Emory University Athletics
Emory University swimmers Elizabeth Aronoff, Marcela Sanchez-Aizcorbe and Hayes Burdette-Sapp have each been chosen as Academic All-Americans as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Aronoff makes her second straight appearance on the Academic All-America At-Large First Team while Sanchez-Aizcorbe was named to the Second Team and Burdette-Sapp to the Third Team for the first time in their respective careers.
The trio of Academic All-America honorees brings the total of Academic All-Americans in the history of Emory Athletics to 170, with 65 First Team honors. Women's Swimming & Diving now has accumulated 24 Academic All-America selections in its history with Aronoff becoming just the 11th member of the program to garner First Team kudos. For the Men's Swimming & Diving program, Burdette-Sapp is just the 20th member to earn Academic All-America distinction.
Aronoff, now a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-American after also earning Second Team honors as a sophomore, just concluded a decorated career with the Eagles. Aronoff, in her four seasons, was a three-time CSCAA Scholar All-American as well as a two-time national champion and a nine-time UAA champion. During her senior year, she helped the Eagles to their seventh consecutive national championship (ninth overall) and collected her sixth All-America certificate in her career with a fifth-place showing in the 200 Breaststroke and added All-America Honorable Mention honors in the 100 Breaststroke, finishing ninth. Aronoff, who was nominated with a 3.92 grade-point average as a Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology major, was a recipient of the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship earlier this season and was named the winner of Scholar-Athlete Award at the annual Emory Athletics Banquet.
After being part of a historic NCAA Championship record-setting performance with the Eagles in 2016, Sanchez-Aizcorbe makes her first career appearance on the CoSIDA Academic All-America teams. The Nacogdoches, TX native was part of four of Emory's five relay national championship teams in the 200, 400 Free Relay and 200, 400 Medley Relay events. The 200 Free Relay team that she swam the third leg of set the Division III national record in the event, touching with a time of 1:31.42. Sanchez-Aizcorbe added All-America honors in the 100 Fly to give her five All-America certificates at the championship meet and 10 in her three-year career. In addition, she tallied All-America Honorable Mention honors in both 50 Free and 100 Free. Sanchez-Aizcorbe, who was nominated with a 3.88 GPA as Finance and Political Science double major, adds being a three-time UAA Champion, a two-time CSCAA Scholar All-American as well as a two-time UAA All-Academic Team selection to her list of accolades.
Burdette-Sapp, nominated with a 3.68 GPA as a Physics and Business dual major, helped the Emory Men's Swimming & Diving program to a third place finish at nationals as he was part of one of the Eagles' three national titles in the 400 Free Relay. With Burdette-Sapp, the 400 Free Relay team set a new school record in the event, touching with a time of 2:57.44. The junior added All-America honors as part of the third place 800 Free Relay team which finished with a school-record time of 6:35.36. In addition, Burdette-Sapp is a 2015 All-America Honorable Mention in the 800 Free Relay, a two-time UAA Champion, a four-time All-UAA finalist, a two-time CSCAA Scholar All-American and a two-time UAA All-Academic Team honoree in his three-year career.
The Academic All-America teams were selected from the pool of Academic All-District winners, which were announced by CoSIDA in May. Sports represented on the 'At-Large' team include women's bowling, women's crew, men's and women's fencing, women's field hockey, men's and women's golf, men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's ice hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's rifle, men's and women's skiing, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's tennis, men's volleyball, men's and women's water polo and men's wrestling.
To be eligible for Academic All-America consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.