Two Hurricanes Garner Academic All-District Honors
May 22, 2009
Coral Gables, Fla. – Women’s tennis student-athlete Bianca Eichkorn and male diver Reuben Ross have both been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District At-Large team for men and women.
Bianca Eichkorn, a sophomore from Tengen, Germany, is enjoying the best season performance by a sophomore in women’s tennis history at Miami. She is currently participating in the NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles/Doubles Championships, playing in the Round of 16 on the singles side Friday, May 22 in College Station, Texas.
Eichkorn carries a record of 40-8 into her “Sweet 16” matchup, becoming just the third women’s tennis student-athlete in UM history to collect 40-or more wins in a season. She is the only sophomore to ever accomplish the feat, and is now third all-time at Miami for wins in a single-season–trailing only All-Americans Audra Cohen and Megan Bradley (also a current UM volunteer assistant coach).
Eichkorn, who is working towards a degree in International Finance & Marketing, holds a GPA of 3.83 on the year. For her efforts in the classroom, Eichkorn was selected to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Second Team for District III. Not only does she join Bradley on the list for wins in a season, but now joins her on the list of being named an ESPN The Magazine District III All-Academic performer as well. Bradley earned the award in 2005.
The women’s At-Large program for Academic All-America includes the sports of bowling, crew, fencing, golf, gymnastics, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, tennis and water polo.
As for UM diver Reuben Ross, his latest academic accomplishment of being named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III Second Team (Men’s At-Large) is just another in a long list of accolades for the three-time All-America Diver, and 2008 NCAA Champion.
During the 2008-09 season, Ross became just the fifth male diver in school history to garner All-American awards in all three diving events at this year’s NCAA Championships in College Station, Texas. Ross would lay claim to his sixth All-America honor in three years with a third place finish on the 10-meter platform; seventh in the 3-meter; and picked up seventh in the 1-meter.
Only Miguel Velazquez (2004), Tyce Routson (1996, ’97, 2000), Chris Mantilla (1996, ’97, ’98) and Bryan Gillooly (1996, ’97) had accomplished that task before of collecting All-America honors in all three diving events in a single NCAA Championship event.
The Regina, Saskatchewan (Canada) native holds a 3.54 GPA while working towards a degree in Civil Engineering. He is rapidly becoming of Miami’s most storied male divers in just his first three years of competition under head diving coach Randy Ableman.
For more information on the ESPN The Magazine All-District Teams, please locate your internet browser to www.CoSIDA.com.
