Five Ivies Named CoSIDA/Capital One At-Large Academic All-Americans

Capital One Academic All-America Division I Men’s and Women’s At-Large Teams

TOWSON, Md. -- Harvard senior lacrosse player Melanie Baskind and Brown senior gymnast Katie Goddard were named to the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-America women’s at-large first team, the organization announced Thursday.

Baskind and Goddard joined three other Ivies on the men’s and women’s at-large All-America teams. The men’s at-large program includes the sports of fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, water polo and wrestling, while the women’s at-large program includes the sports of bowling, crew, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis and water polo. The teams are selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Baskind received the honor one day after being tabbed the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Association’s Div. I Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Baskind is now the fourth student-athlete in program history to be named a first team Academic All-American. She was also named first-team Academic All-America this fall in women’s soccer and was a second team pick in 2010.

Baskind led the Crimson in points (33), assists (6) and caused turnovers (15) this spring while guiding the women’s lacrosse team to its second straight appearance in the Ivy League Tournament. She also ranked second in goals (27) and groundballs (37). A neurobiology concentrator with a secondary concentration in global health and health policy, Baskind graduated this spring with a 3.756 GPA.

A 2012 ECAC Scholar Athlete of the Year and an Academic All-Ivy selection, Goddard is a four-time NACGC/W Academic All-American as well as an ECAC All-Academic Team honoree. Goddard was a four-time USAG Collegiate Nationals Scholar Athlete and a two-time USAG National Qualifier.

Goddard was a recipient of the athletic department's Bessie H. Rudd Award in 2010, which is given to the female athlete who has done the most to promote women's sports at Brown. Goddard maintained her 4.0 GPA throughout her four-year career and was a Public Policy & American Institutions concentrator.

Cornell senior gymnast Bethany Neczypor joined Baskind and Goddard on the women’s side, as she earned second team honors. Neczypor is the 10th Big Red gymnast to earn a spot on the prestigious squad, giving the team a member for the third straight year.

A USAG All-American on bars and beam in 2011, Neczypor was the Ivy Classic champion on bars in 2010. A four-year starter on bars and beam, she graduated with the fifth-highest bars score in school history (9.850). Neczypor was a four-time USAG Scholar-Athlete All-American who was part of two Ivy Classic championship and one ECAC title-winning teams, as well as three squads that qualified for the USAG Collegiate Nationals. Neczypor will graduate with a 4.01 GPA in psychology.

On the men’s side, Dartmouth senior skier Eric Packer and Princeton junior fencer Jonathan Yergler earned second and third team honors, respectively.

Packer earned a spot on the second team this year after making the third team as a junior in 2011. The senior engineering major from Anchorage, Alaska with a 3.86 grade point average did not disappoint in his final campaign for the Big Green, earning All-America honors in both races at the NCAA Championships held in Bozeman, Mont. He placed fourth in the 20K Classic to make the first team, and finished eighth in the 10K Freestyle for a slot on the second team. Packer, a member of the All-Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) First Team, also competed in the U23 World Championships in Turkey at the end of February, just before the NCAA Championships.

This is the 59th Academic All-America selection for a Dartmouth student-athlete since the program’s inception in 1952, and the 17th selection over the past decade.

Yergler had a successful junior year both on the strip and off. The highlight of the psychology major's season was his NCAA individual championship in the epee, marking the first NCAA individual title for a Princeton fencer since 2001. Yergler was the only fencer among the three Academic All-America men's teams.