The ACC has honored 50 student athletes as 2014 postgraduate scholarship recipients, with each of the conference’s 15 schools receiving either three or four awards.
Each of those 50 award winners will receive $5,000 toward his or her graduate education, and the selections are made on the basis of academic distinction, athletic distinction, and exemplary conduct in the community.
Among those 50 are one swimmer and two divers. The swimmer is North Carolina’s Meredith Hoover, Hoover is the UNC School Record holder in the 200 fly, and at the 2013 NCAA Championships placed 4th in the event with a 1:54.75. She followed that up with an 8th-place finish in 2014 as a senior – marking a monumental progression from the earlier half of her career.
In that breakout junior season alone, she improved her lifetime best from a 1:58.0 to a 1:54.4.
She is also a CSCAA First-Team Scholar All-America honoree, a four-time ACC Academic Honor Roll member, is a recipient of the Leader of Distinction Award from the Carolina Leadership Academy, and is on the Dean’s List at North Carolina.
Hoover’s major at UNC is Romance Languages.
The two divers honored are Tom Neubacher from Florida State and Emily Howard from Clemson.
Neubacher has earned a perfect 12-for-12 qualifications into A-Finals at the ACC Championships and is a two-time NCAA qualifier. He placed 7th on the 1-meter at the 2013 NCAA Championships and 13th on the platform. He also earned the Golden Torch award for having the highest GPA on Florida State’s swimming & diving team in 2013.
Clemson’s Emily Howard set the school records on the 1-meter and 3-meter during her senior season, and during her junior and senior years led the reorganized ‘diving only’ Clemson program in scoring. She’s a two-time member of the ACC Academic Honor Roll and also served as a member of Clemson’s Student-Athlete-Advisory-Committee.
Congratulations to Meredith! Way to rep the Tar Heels!