From Carnegie Mellon University Athletics
Three Carnegie Mellon University athletes were honored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) as At-Large Academic All-District selections. Senior women's swimmer Emma Nicklas-Morris (Winston-Salem, N.C./RJ Reynolds) was selected to the women's team while junior swimmer Justin Britton (Falls Church, Va./George Mason) and junior men's tennis athlete Ray Boppana (Boxborough, Mass. / Acton Boxborough Regional) were selected to the men's team. The award is the second received by both Nicklas-Morris and Britton.
All three will represent District 4, comprised of all the Division III schools in Pennsylvania, on the national ballot for Academic All-America consideration. To be eligible for the award, athletes must be starters or significant reserves in at least their sophomore season and carry a minimum GPA of 3.30.
Nicklas-Morris, who just received a NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, completed her senior season with three All-America awards from the CSCAA for being invited to the national championships in three different events. The swimmer holds six school records for the Tartans and earned an additional three All-America honors and six All-America Honorable Mention honors in three years at the NCAA Championships.
The 2020 graduate with a degree in psychology and a double minor in art and design finished with a 3.89 GPA. Nicklas-Morris has additionally taken courses at Rhode Island School of Design and studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, last summer after earning several scholarships to attend. She combines her passion for volunteering and art with the national organization Design for America. With the organization, Nicklas-Morris spends Sunday afternoon's at Pleasant Valley Men's Shelter where she leads a project called art2connect, giving members an outlet for expression. Nicklas-Morris was also a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) where she volunteered with Field Day and Special Olympics while joining other initiatives for SAAC.
Nicklas-Morris's postgraduate plans include a graphic design job in Houston, Texas, starting in August where she plans to work before pursuing graduate school to obtain her master's degree in design.
Britton was named the 2019 NCAA Elite 90 winner and a CoSIDA Academic All-American last year. This season he set seven new school records and holds a total of nine for the Tartan program which was set to have 13 men swim and dive at the NCAA Championships. Britton was awarded six All-America honors this year by the CSCAA, three for individual events and three for relays. At last year's NCAA meet, Britton earned three All-America Honorable Mention awards. He was ranked fourth in the 100-yard backstroke and seventh in the 100-yard butterfly this year.
Britton carries a 4.0 GPA in information systems and is a Boeing Scholarship winner. This past semester within an information systems course, he spent time consulting for a school district to help them improve their data analytics. He serves as the vice president of the Schatz Club, co-leads a Bible study, and volunteers during the 1000-plus Day of Service for CMU. This summer, Britton will intern for Appian in Northern Virginia as a software engineer.
Boppana was a 2020 All-UAA selection at first singles after achieving first-team recognition at third singles as a freshman. He closed his shortened junior season with 76 career combined wins after collecting 10 singles victories and six doubles victories. Boppana played in the semifinals of the ITA Southeast Regional singles bracket this year and was a finalist in the same tournament as a freshman. He has accumulated 18 career singles wins against nationally ranked teams and has been a member of the three Tartan teams ranked in the top 15.
Off the court, Boppana is a teacher's assistant in the math department for differential and integral calculus and carries a 3.64 GPA as an operations research and statistics and machine learning double major with a minor in computational finance. He'll spend the 2020 summer as a Quant Intern for Royal Bank of Canada after having internships in machine learning for Netra and as a quantitative analyst for BGC Partners.