Abigail Keim Named Google Cloud Academic All-District®

GOOGLE CLOUD ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT® RELEASE

BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott junior 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-District® Team recognizes the top student-athletes for their combined athletic and academic performances. The NCAA Division III District 1 Team includes all schools in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. First-team Academic All-District® honorees advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Team ballot, where first, second and third team All-America® honorees will be selected next month. Keim is now the second student-athlete in program history to earn Google Cloud Academic All-District® Women's Track & Field/Cross Country First Team accolades joining Holly Rigoli '16 (Waltham, Mass.) on the list who did so during the 2015-16 academic year.

Keim earned her way onto the Google Cloud Academic All-District® Women's Track & Field/Cross Country First Team behind a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average (GPA) as a double major in biology & biotechnology/psychology.

Keim's academic merits aren't just limited to her GPA, however, as the junior distance runner is a member of several programs/societies including the Endicott Honors Program, the Psi Chi and Phi Sigma Honor Societies, the Mortar Board Honor Society, and the Biotechnology Society.

Additionally, Keim was awarded a Presidential Scholarship and a Diplomatic Commendation this year at the Harvard University Model United Nations conference as a member of Endicott's Model United Nations Team. Keim also serves as a Relay for Life Planning Committee member and Peer Tutor at Endicott.

Meanwhile, her work in the classroom is highlighted by her faculty research with Dr. Alefiya Albers. As a research assistant, Keim has 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.

Athletically, Keim was named the 2015 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Rookie of the Year, earned two CCC Academic All-Conference honors, and this past season finished No. 52 overall in the CCC Championship with a time of 28:21.2 on the 6.1-kilometer course. On the track as a member of Endicott's first-year program, Keim holds the 3,000-meter school record in 12:12.42.

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 2017-18 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. 

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(Photo Credit - David Le '10)