Hood Places 87 Student-Athletes on 2011-12 CAC All-Academic Team

FREDERICK, Md.--The Capital Athletic Conference recognized 87 Hood College student-athletes on the 2011-12 all-academic team, as announced by conference officials Tuesday.

Out of 286 student-athletes at Hood, 30.4 percent maintained the minimum requirement of a 3.2 cumulative grade point average during the 2011-12 academic year, marking the largest number of Blazer student-athletes to earn this distinction since Hood joined the conference in 2006-07.

Hood's number of CAC all-academic honorees steadily increased each year it was a member of the conference. In 2006-07, when 11 Hood teams were members of the CAC, 39 student-athletes garnered all-academic team certificates. In 2007-08, the first year all Blazer teams participated in the CAC, Hood placed 58 student-athletes on the all-academic team. That number gradually increased to 61 in 2008-09, then 65 in 2009-10 and 82 student-athletes were honored in 2010-11.

Hood's listing of scholars, which included at least one representative from each of the Blazers' 20 varsity sports, included 27 first-years, 19 sophomores, 17 juniors and 24 seniors.

The women's track and field and women's soccer teams boasted the largest number of representatives on the CAC all-academic squad with 11 apiece, followed closely by men's track and field and men's lacrosse with 10 each. The field hockey and women's cross country teams each landed eight representatives, while men's soccer and softball each posted seven. Five members of the volleyball, women's tennis and women's lacrosse teams earned the distinction, followed by women's swimming (4), men's tennis (4), men's cross country (3), men's basketball (2), women's basketball (2), men's golf (2) and men's swimming (1).

Ten Blazers are four-time all-academic performers, including women's track athletes Emma Arneson and Mollie Widdowson; men's lacrosse player Dylan O'Connell; men's soccer player Doug Raftery; two-sport athletes Casey Miller (soccer/tennis) and Emily Schrodel (tennis/swimming); men's tennis teammates Andrew Blowe and Carter Reitman; women's tennis player Laura Saad; and men's track and field standout Chris DiGangi.

Three Blazers achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA in 2011-12 - Sara Bean of the women's cross country and track and field teams; Maria Smith of the field hockey team and Carter Reitman of the men's tennis team.

A total of 1,108 student-athletes from the nine CAC-member schools were recognized by the conference, the second straight year that the conference eclipsed the 1,000-athlete plateau. Hood ranked seventh of the nine CAC schools in total all-academic honorees.

Below is a complete list of the 2011-12 CAC all-academic team.