Wooster Places Five On Women’s At-Large CSC Academic All-District® Team

CSC Academic All-District® Release (At-Large Contest)

Junior Melissa Burtscher (women's golf), senior Clare Leithauser (field hockey, women's lacrosse), sophomore Kenzie Morris (women's lacrosse), junior Maddie Peek (field hockey), and senior Britta Treu (women's lacrosse) were among the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® honorees for the women's at-large contest, as announced by the organization on Tuesday afternoon.

Burtscher broke Wooster's women's golf team's single-season scoring record with an 81.2 average over 19 rounds. The first-team All-North Coast Athletic Conference performer this spring collected her second-career all-conference certificate after posting the fifth-place score of 241 at the league championships. Burtscher became Wooster's single-round scoring leader by posting a 72 in the final round of the Transylvania University Fall Invitational, a tournament where Wooster broke its single-round team scoring record by 11 strokes. Burtscher, who led Wooster to a team single-season scoring record at 335.5 strokes had five top-five and eight top-10 finishes this season in traditional tournaments.

The psychology major spent last summer working as an animal care assistant at L.O.L.A.'s Rescue. There, Burtscher worked to eliminate safety hazards for the dogs at the facility, cleaned kennels, and watered and fed the animals according to prescribed diets and portions. Burtscher is a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative for women's golf, is a student assistant with the women's basketball team, works in the campus fitness center and with game operations, and is part of the campus chapter of the Psi Chi honor society in psychology.

Leithauser earned All-NCAC honors for the second time in lacrosse this spring. The senior posted team-leading totals in groundballs and caused turnovers with 51 and 28, respectively. Leithauser graduated fifth with 179 all-time groundballs and had 73 lifetime caused turnovers. Her 79 groundballs as a junior rate as the second-most in single-season program history and she was four shy of matching the single-season program record. In field hockey, Leithauser started all 19 games as a back as a senior and was part of all four clean sheets on the season.

The political science major researched the impact of state regime type on foreign direct investment received when hosting the Olympics for her Independent Study. The three-time member of the National Field Hockey Coaches Association National Academic Squad and one-time member of the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Academic Honor Roll spent last summer as an intern at Age Friendly DC. There, Leithauser aligned the organization's goals with the goals of other agencies in the area to find areas of collaboration. Additionally, Leithauser facilitated meetings to enhance education and understanding the process of Age Friendly initiatives. Elsewhere, Leithauser worked at Camp Alleghany for Girls in West Virginia over several summers and was an officer for SAAC, where she was one of the lead planners for the "Scotties" awards banquet.

Morris earned an elevation to first-team All-NCAC for women's lacrosse after becoming the first Scot since 2019 to surpass 50 goals in a season. Morris' 54 goals rank seventh in single-season program history, and she scored seven times in a game twice this spring, with that ranking two shy of the single-game program record. Morris surpassed 100 career points this spring and now has 121 career draw controls, following up a debut season of 61 with 60.

The environmental studies major is off to Australia this fall after being accepted into the Australia Sustainability and Environmental Action Program. In the summers, Morris has worked at SSC Controls in Mentor, Ohio, helping distribute raw materials into machinery, assembling goods on the production line, and soldering switches. Morris also assists with quality control with testing and packaging of products prior to shipping. On campus, Morris is a statistics spotter for field hockey home games, volunteers with the College's Soup and Bread program, makes blankets for Project Linus, and is a volunteer at the local Goodwill Industries store. The junior-to-be is also one of the team's SAAC representatives.

Peek's enhanced role saw the junior emerge as Wooster's top all-around player. The midfielder stepped in as one of Wooster's top offensive players after primarily playing a defensive and transition role earlier in her career. Peek started all 19 games and earned All-NCAC laurels after scoring four times and assisting on three goals. Her 59 shots led the team, while her 11 points were second. Peek scored the lone goal in Wooster's 1-0 win over Concordia University Wisconsin on October 16.

The three-time NFHCA Scholar of Distinction and three-time qualifier for the NFHCA National Academic Squad spent last summer as a research assistant at Brightspot Families in Toledo, Ohio. There, Peek assisted with research and prepared data for psychology opinion pieces published to national audiences. The psychology major identified additional publishing opportunities for the organization and devised techniques to make psychology resources more accessible to younger generations. At Wooster, Peek is a volunteer with Goodwill Industries and she studied abroad in Spain.

Treu, a second-team All-NCAC selection, broke the program's 21-year-old single-season assists record with 42 on the year. The senior finished with 77 career helpers, good for fourth all-time in program history. Treu ranked second on the team with 59 points, thanks to backing the 42 assists up with 17 goals. Her signature game came against Westminster College (Pa.), where she finished with four goals and four assists. The senior had at least three assists eight times on the year and had the helper on Wooster's game-winning overtime goal at Oberlin College in the season finale.

The communication studies major, who was one of Wooster's student Commencement speakers, examined technology's impact on Gen Z's face-to-face communication skills for her Independent Study. Treu was the trumpet section leader for the Scot Marching Band and also was part of the symphonic band, mercury brass quintet, and Wooster Symphony Orchestra during her time at Wooster. This past year, Treu served as president of Wooster Christian Fellowship, helped lead a student-athlete bible study group, and was in Shades of Gold, an a cappella group on campus. Treu has experience as a middle and high school club lacrosse coach, sorted clothing and food donations at People-to-People Ministries in Wooster, and was a volunteer at the New Sweden Historical Society in Maine.

Wooster's Academic All-District® selections are on the Academic All-America® ballot, which is voted on by CSC members in advance of the announcement of the Academic All-America® team on June 22. Starting with the 2022-23 academic year, all eligible nominees submitted by member schools earn Academic All-District® status. Nominees were voted to the Academic All-District® Team in previously years and those winners advanced to the Academic All-America® ballot.