Courtesy: Pac-12 Conference
SAN FRANCISCO – Stanford’s Ella Eastin has been named the Pac-12 Women’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the Conference office announced today. The award, which is presented in each of the 24 sports the Pac-12 sponsors, was established to honor collegiate student-athletes that are standouts both academically and in their sports discipline.
Eastin, a human biology major and two-time Pac-12 Women’s Swimmer of the Year, boasts a 3.74 grade-point average. She was named CoSIDA first-team Academic All-America in 2018, earned Pac-12 All-Academic honors in 2017 and 2018, and has garnered CSCAA Scholar All-America accolades in each of her first three seasons. The decorated swimmer is a 14-time All-American and has won eight individual Pac-12 titles and 10 national championship events. Eastin was a two-time Honda Sport Award for Swimming and Diving nominee (2016, 2018), an award that acknowledges athletic achievement as well as scholastics and community involvement.
The Irvine, Calif., native has led Stanford to back-to-back Pac-12 and NCAA Championship titles. At the 2018 NCAA Championships, she earned Swimmer of the Meet honors after winning three individual national titles, the most of any competitor. She currently holds four American, NCAA and school records (200-yard butterfly, 200 individual medley, 400 IM, 800 free relay). The 2018-19 team captain helped Stanford record its fourth-consecutive undefeated season, going 30-0 in dual meets during her career on The Farm.
Eastin and the rest of the Pac-12 will be competing this week at the 2019 Pac-12 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in Federal Way, Wash., from Feb. 27 – March 2. Pac-12 Networks is set to feature live coverage of two action-packed weekends of Pac-12 Swimming and Diving Championships, available via the Pac-12 Now app and Pac-12.com, culminating each weekend on Saturday with championship rounds on Pac-12 Networks.
In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50 percent of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sport’s regular season. The athletics accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in voting for the award.
A Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be named in each of the Pac-12’s 24 sponsored sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, beach volleyball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, men’s rowing, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track & field, women’s track & field, women’s volleyball, and wrestling. The award was first established during the 2008-09 academic year.