Alexander, Duncan earn academic all-district distinction
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Izzy Alexander ’09 |
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Vantiel Elizabeth |
Alexander was the only athlete from a NESCAC institution to receive First Team honors in the District 1 College Division, while Duncan picked up Second Team honors.
As a First Team honoree, Alexander enters the pool of nominees for ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America honors.
Alexander (Harvard, Mass.), a double-major in psychology and Spanish, carries a 3.71 cumulative grade point average. Named the 2007-08 Bates Female Athlete of the Year in April, she gained her second and third NCAA All-America awards this year by finishing eighth at indoor nationals in the 800 meters, followed by a sixth-place showing in the 400-meter hurdles at outdoor nationals. She also won the 400-meter hurdles at both the NESCAC and New England Division III Outdoor Championships in 2008. Alexander owns nine Bates track and field records. The lone junior captain on the women’s track and field team, Alexander is co-president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and she co-organized the first annual Bates Field Day, which drew 200 local children on campus for an afternoon of sports with about 100 Bates student-athletes.
Duncan (Topsham, Maine), a major in politics with minors in music and Chinese language, carries a 3.56 grade point average. She won indoor All-America honors in the weight throw in 2008, then competed in both the shot put and hammer throw at the NCAA Outdoor Division III Track and Field Championships. She won the NESCAC title in the shot put while finishing third at NESCACs in the hammer and fourth in the discus throw, and she was also All-New England in the shot and the hammer. An accomplished clarinetist, Duncan is a member of the orchestra and choir, as well as co-president of her class and a student adviser to President Elaine Tuttle Hansen and the Bates board of trustees.
It is the third straight year that at least one member of the Bates women’s track and field team has garnered ESPN The Magazine All-Academic honors. A year ago, Jennifer Caban ’07 and Kathryn Moore ’07 received First Team and Second Team honors, respectively. In 2006, Ashley Wentworth ’06 made First Team.
Both Alexander and Duncan have automatically made the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s 2008 Academic All-America team, by virtue of qualifying for the NCAA Championships while maintaining the requisite grade point average of 3.25. Also earning the USTFCCCA honor are teammates Cassandra Kirkland ’08 (Greene, Maine) and junior Jen Marino (Methuen, Mass.).