HIGH ACHIEVERS: Record number U Sports student-athletes named Academic All-Canadians

By Martin Cleary

A record 4,903 Canadian university student-athletes have been honoured as Academic All-Canadians for the 2019-20 school year.

That figure is a staggering number because it means more than one-third (33.7 per cent) of the 14,543 male and female student-athletes in U Sports varsity programs excelled in the classroom, having an 80 per cent or higher academic average while playing on one or more sports team.

The number of Academic All-Canadians rocketed to 4,903 from 3,998 in 2018-19 for an annual increase of 22.6 per cent, which is the highest single-year growth in the 32-year history of the student-athlete recognition program.

From the 4,903 honourees, one male and one female from each of the four U Sports conferences will be named Jan. 11 to the Top 8 Academic All-Canadians list and awarded the Governor General’s Academic All-Canadian Commendation.

Here are the names of the 2019-20 Academic All-Canadians from the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees and the Carleton University Ravens as released by each school.

uOttawa Gee-Gees women’s basketball: Maia Timmons, Tyra Blizzard, Angela Ribarich, Brigitte Lefebvre-Okankwu, Katherine Follis;

Gee-Gees women’s volleyball: Kara Hayes, Dana Bulloch, Milana Grahovac, Portia Cooper, Nieve Seguin, Magalie Frappier;

Gee-Gees women’s soccer: Margot Shore, Veronique Filion, Jennifer Rowe, Katherine Bearne, Lauren Da Luz, Hailey Walsh, Thea Abdul-Nour, Cooper Lee, Michelle Salhany, Emma Lefebvre, Gabrielle Emilien;

Gee-Gees women’s hockey: Meagan McGaughey, Taylor McGaughey, Mikaila Kraczynski, Marimee Godbout-Parent, Christine Deaudelin, Katherine Birkby, Valerie Bouillon, Jade Todd, Kailey Lapensee;

Gee-Gees women’s cross-country: Madison Clarke, Holly Hicks, Abigail Lea, Keili Shepherd, Tiarra Ward, Martha Young;

Gee-Gees men’s cross-country: Paul Bates, Adrian Fournier, Nathan Meraw, Robert Mitchell;

Gee-Gees women’s track-and-field: Madison Clarke, Emma Dobson Takoff, Holly Hicks, Stephanie Leask, Pernille Lund, Keili Shepherd, Sydney Smith, Maeliss Trapeau;

Gee-Gees men’s track-and-field: Derek Brougham, Tyler Dacosta, Luke Jones, Zach Leger, Quinn Lyness, Robert Mitchell, Conor Ross, Kyle Sprague, Matthew Tang, Lucas Trapeau, Mathieu Tremblay, Luka Vukovic;

Gee-Gees women’s rugby: Justine Blatt-Janmaat, Anabelle Clements, Anna Dodge, Taylor Donato, Claire Gallagher, Talia Hennessy, Victoria Hough, Lauren Minns, Georgia Stewart, Tori Wyman;

Gee-Gees women’s swimming: Joanne Diemert, Mackenzie Finkbeiner, Alina Juuti, Malorie Kanaan, Samantha Mallon, Katie Polley, Lauren Shearer, Stephanie Shuai, Abby Simms, Delphine Vandal;

Gee-Gees men’s swimming: Connor Beals, Louis Bertrand, Davide Casarin, Gordon Forrest, Jacob Isaac, Dawson Konrad, Judson Nickerson, Nathan Schiffmann, Vincenzo Sljuka, Mathieu Vilain;

Gee-Gees football: Loic Legendre, Cedric Amessan, Maxim Malenfant, Francis Perron, Reyd Kessler;

Gee-Gees men’s hockey: Jacob Sweeney, Matthew Dunlop, Brendan Jacome, Quinn O’Brien, Jacob Hanlon, Antoine Pouliot, Domenic Graham.

Carleton Ravens women’s hockey: Jordan Beshara, Angelina Callocchia, Hannah Dinovitzer, Amy Doherty, Alexandra Lehmann, Lea Scott, Jennifer Semkowski, Grace Tam, Bethan Wilson, Megan Wilson, Isabelle Woodward, Sandrine Hachez;

Ravens women’s soccer: Hannah Brown, Leah Chabot, Shalene Denovan, Chloe Doherty, Sophie Ehlebracht, Ana Itoafa, Youma Konate, Chloe Lechance-Soulard, Darcy Mayer, Selena Moussa, Stella Oliver;

Ravens football: Giordano Belfiore, Philippe Bellerose, Timothe Gros-Louis, Makayeo Hall, Trevor Hoyle, Alexandre Laberge-Chung, Cedric Theriault, Vincent Viau-Duval, Joshua Walsh;

Ravens women’s swimming: Claire Ashton, Rowan Brzezinski, Allison Howes, Mary-Pat MacRae, Marta Kolbuszewska, Meagan Schlottke;

Ravens men’s swimming: Derek Hogan, Cameron Teasdale, Finnian Tuck, Jacob Spierings, Conall McCutcheon;

Ravens women’s rugby: Erin Bonney-Brookman, Roberta Drummond, Chloe Humber, Eileen Kennedy-MacDonald, Demi Swann, Asia Tomlinson, Maddison Wood, Malak El Nasr;

Ravens women’s rowing: Delaney Gilmore, Marilyn Irwin, Meghan Jolley, Julia Zebarth, Emma Lindale;

Ravens women’s basketball: Tatyanna Burke, Emma Huff, Karyne Jolicoeur, Mallory Katz, Bryn Reynolds;

Ravens men’s basketball: Elliott Bailey, Connor Vreeken, Aiden Warnholt;

Ravens men’s rowing: Benjamin Koskowich, Scott Leslie, Declan McCoy;

Ravens women’s nordic skiing: Meghan Burns, Emma Holmes, Katherine Mason, Chloe Ranahan, Zoe Williams, Kate Mason, Bronwyn Williams;

Ravens men’s nordic skiing: Brendon Howard, Jack Panayi, Devon Pegrum, Ezra Pierce, Sander Van Walraven, Aidan Kirkham;

Ravens women’s fencing: Kate-Lynn Caparini, Jillian Hu-Tchernykh, Lauren Kim, Sarah McTaggart, Anna Sholomenko, Laurenne Tynski;

Ravens men’s fencing: Justin Kim, Buster Biggs;

Ravens men’s hockey: Alex Mann, Aaron Boyd, Andrew Burns, Michael Constantine, Dakota Odgers, Keenan Reynolds;

Ravens men’s soccer: Emad Houache, Sean Kim, Kelly Lowry, Scott Mazzotta, Diego Politis, Idir Zerrouk;

Carleton Ravens men’s water polo: Martin Andrijasevic, Kevin Fox, Filip Lukic, Dylan Robbescheuten, Santiago Solarz-Meyer;

Ravens men’s golf: Dylan Rouse;

Ravens women’s track-and-field: Alexa McGannon, Maria Okwechime;

Ravens men’s cross-country/track-and-field: Sidney Armstrong, Darrell Hill;

Ravens women’s cross-country/track-and-field: Pippa Norman.

Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 47 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.

When the pandemic struck, Martin created the “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.

Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.