Gill Earns Academic Momentum Award
April 19, 2016 03:47 PM | Women's Swimming & Diving
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Sophomore Taylor Gill of the West Virginia University women’s swimming and diving team has been named a recipient of the First Team Academic Momentum Award, by the Scholar Baller® program in conjunction with the National Consortium of Academics and Sports (NCAS).
“This is great for Taylor,” coach Vic Riggs said. "She is our first recipient of this award. It's great to see her hard work recognized, and our program continues to strive for academic success. This is just another example that shows our women's team's commitment to their academics.”
Top nominations were categorized into three teams based on each student-athlete’s academic improvement and the impact each student-athlete’s academic performance had on his or her classmates, teammates, academic advisors and professors. The award recognizes student-athletes who have demonstrated momentous academic improvements throughout their collegiate careers.
Majoring in exercise physiology, Gill understood how to balance all of the commitments of a student-athlete. Her hard work and dedication in the classroom gave her the academic momentum she needed to succeed.
At the 2016 Big 12 Championship, Gill advanced to the A finals in both the 400 individual medley and the 200 backstroke where she swam career-best times in each event. She added a career-best time in the B final in the 200 IM.
She is the first member of the Mountaineer swimming and diving team to receive the Academic Momentum Award.
Earlier in the year, the WVU women’s squad was named a Scholar All-America Team by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) for earning a 3.27 cumulative grade point average during the fall semester.
Established in 1995, the Scholar Baller® movement evolved in response to concerns that the student-athlete’s athletics role increasingly superseded the student role. In order to address this issue, the founding members of Scholar Baller® development a groundbreaking program to bridge the gap between education and sport utilizing student-athletes’ passion for entertainment and athletics. As a result, the Scholar Baller® program has produced unprecedented outcomes in student retention and academic achievement.
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