Abigail Keim Collects Second Career Google Cloud Academic All-District® Honor

GOOGLE CLOUD ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT® RELEASE

BEVERLY, Mass. – For the second time in her illustrious career, Endicott senior distance runner Abigail Keim (Williston, Vt.) has been named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District® Women's Track & Field/Cross Country First Team, as presented by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) organization.

The Google Cloud Academic All-America® program separately recognizes outstanding student-athletes in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, and NAIA. First-team Academic All-District® honorees advance to the Google Cloud Academic All-America® ballot.

First-, second- and third-team (if applicable) Academic All-America® honorees will be announced in June (NCAA Division III – June 25).

With today's announcement, Keim is first student-athlete in the history of the women's track & field and/or cross country programs to become a two-time CoSIDA All-District selection.

Keim's senior year has been one for the record books as the distance runner has claimed the following awards: 2018 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Women's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete, 2019 CCC Women's Track & Field Scholar-Athlete, Endicott College President's Award, Endicott College Social Science Award, Endicott College Scholar-Athlete Award, and the Endicott Athletics Female Student-Athlete of the Year award. She also will claim her fifth career CCC Academic All-Conference honor in June (three in cross country/two in track & field).

Meanwhile, academically, the biology & biotechnology and psychology double major graduated last Saturday with a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average (GPA). Keim's academic career also included research on the correlation between concussions and loss of olfactory senses which resulted in the production of several psychology and biology publications and abstracts.

As a research assistant with Dr. Alefiya Albers, Keim designed and conducted drug trials using murine models to examine the trauma of brain injuries, created and ran a Western Blotting protocol to assess levels of expression of a protein of interest, analyzed tissue samples using immunofluorescence stains and microscopy, and administered olfactory tests to subjects enrolled in ongoing longitudinal research studies. 

Keim has also served as a laboratory worker at the Janssen-Heininger Laboratory and Vermont Lung Center, and volunteered at the Beverly Hospital Emergency Department.

Keim will continue her studies at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.

The rest of Keim's resume includes the following: the 2015 CCC Women's Cross Country Rookie of the Year award, President of the Psi Chi Honor Society, member of the Phi Sigma Honor Society, the Mortar Board Honor Society, and the Biotechnology Society, and the head delegate of the Model UN team. Lastly, Keim is a multiple Dean's List selection, served as peer tutor and mentor, and helped organize a Relay For Life event during her time at Endicott.

GOOGLE CLOUD ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA® PROGRAM INFORMATION

Nominees for the Google Cloud Academic All-District® Team are nominated by their respective Sports Information Director(s) and voted upon by dues paying members within the CoSIDA organization. To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, and have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at his current institution.

The Google Cloud Academic All-America® Program is a highly selective scholar-athlete honor. Approximately 2,000 of the 12,000 student-athletes nominated annually receive "First-Team Academic All-District" honors, and approximately 800 currently gain the prestigious Google Cloud Academic All-America® honor.

The Division II and III Google Cloud Academic All-America® Program is partially financially supported by the NCAA Division II and III national governance structures, to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2018-19 DII and DIII Academic All-America® teams.

ABOUT COSIDA

The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), now in its 61st year as an organization, was founded in 1957-making it the second oldest management association in intercollegiate athletics. Today, it is a vibrant 3,100-plus member national association comprised of the athletic communications, media relations and sports information professionals throughout all levels of collegiate athletics in the United States and Canada. CoSIDA has two primary missions as it seeks to have its profession, organization and membership take its rightful leadership role within the decision-making levels of the intercollegiate athletics community: 1) Help the communications professionals at all collegiate levels with professional development and continuing education as it relates to strategically dealing in an effective manner with the various issues, challenges and opportunities that now exist within the fast-paced and ever-changing communications environment. 2) Play a significant leadership and resource role (i.e. "Strategic Communicators for College Athletics") within the overall enterprise of collegiate athletics thus helping the other management groups and their respective memberships deal with a set of communications-based issues that is the most complex and challenging in history. 

For the latest on Endicott Athletics, follow the Gulls on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

(Photo Credit - David Le '10)