Sports update July 2011: Phillips named academic All-American

Rising senior Liz Phillips of the women’s track & field team was named a Capital One First-Team Academic All-American June 23.

Phillips is the first WUSTL women’s track & field student athlete to garner academic All-America honors since Morgen Leonard-Fleckman received first-team accolades in 2008.

Phillips, a biomedical engineering major with a 4.0 cumulative grade-point average, is just the fifth female in program history to receive first-team Academic All-America honors.

Former basketball standout McFarlin signs pro contract in Denmark

Former WUSTL women’s basketball standout Jaimie McFarlin has signed a professional contract to play for Denmark’s Vaerlose Basketball Club during its 2011-12 season.

McFarlin played for WUSTL from 2005-10, helping lead the Bears to four NCAA Tournament berths with three trips to the NCAA championship game and the 2010 NCAA Division III national championship, where she was tabbed as the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player.

McFarlin, who graduated from Olin Business School with a master’s degree in business administration in 2010, ended her career ranked first in school history with 1,013 rebounds and 11th in scoring with 1,071 points.

Football players earn academic honor

WUSTL had nine student athletes named to the 2011 National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame Hampshire Honor Society.

The honor society is comprised of 686 college football players from all divisions of play, who each maintained a 3.2 GPA or better.

Seniors Brandon Brown, Nick Diehl, Tom Gulyas, Greg Larson, David Mackey, Jim O’Brien, John Schneider, Stephen Sherman and Nick Vom Brack each earned the honor.

Tennis teams earn academic honors

Both the men’s and women’s tennis teams each received 2011 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic accolades. In addition, the two teams combined to see 19 student-athletes garner ITA Scholar-Athlete recognition.

The men’s team ended the 2010-11 academic year with a 3.72 grade point average, while the women’s team posted a 3.46 team GPA. In order to qualify for ITA All-Academic honors a team must hold a minimum GPA of 3.20.

WUSTL was one of two University Athletic Association (UAA) member institutions to have both its men’s and women’s tennis programs receive the ITA academic honor, with Carnegie Mellon University being the other.

The WUSTL men led all Division III programs with 12 student-athletes on the 2011 ITA Scholar-Athlete team and the women’s team had seven student-athletes received All-Academic honors. In order to qualify for ITA All-Academic individual honors a student-athlete must have at least a 3.50 GPA during the previous academic year.

Cameron Chiang, Kareem Farah, Max Franklin, Bryan Haywood, Jeffrey Hirsch, Tim Noack, Gary Parizher, Adam Putterman, Seth Sankary, Isaac Stein, Max Woods and David Zhu received the honor for the men’s team; Kristen George, Katie Helfgott, Kate Klein, Paige Madara, Corinne Rauck, Elise Sambol and Brittany Trimble earned honors for the women’s team.

Former Rams trainer joins WUSTL athletic staff

Director of Athletics John Schael announced the hiring of Jim Anderson as an assistant athletic trainer, effective Aug. 1.

Anderson spent the past 26 years as the head athletic trainer for the NFL’s St. Louis Rams, and made the move with the franchise from the West Coast in 1995. He will oversee coverage for men’s and women’s cross country and track and field, and assist with football, soccer and basketball.

He arrives on the Danforth Campus with 31 years experience as a certified athletic trainer, at both the collegiate and professional level. He also spent three seasons as an athletic trainer at the University of Southern California from 1979-82, and the head athletic trainer for the Oakland Invaders of the USFL from 1983-84.

Edwards gets another national coaching honor

Men’s basketball coach Mark Edwards was named to the CollegeInsider.com Top-25 Non-Division I Head Coaches list, as announced by Jason Belzer on its website.

In 30 seasons at the helm, Edwards has compiled a 542-251 (.683) overall record, including a school-record 27 consecutive winning seasons. He guided Washington University to back-to-back NCAA Division III National Championships in 2008 and 2009, joining an illustrious group of four teams who have won back-to-back titles.