Morgan Hughes

2014-15 Academic All-America Team

Morgan Hughes of The College of Wooster's women's swimming team earned a spot on the 2014-15 Academic All-America® Third Team for women's at-large sports, it was announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Tuesday.

Wooster has had a series of academic all-district award winners in the sport of women's swimming recently, including sisters Rebecca Haug and Melissa Haug in 2010 and 2012, respectively, but Hughes, a northern California native (Chico High School), is the first to pick up Academic All-American® honors since Kayla Heising in 2004.

"The College of Wooster swimming and diving team, alums, and coaching staff are very proud of the fact that Morgan has been named a third-team Academic All-American®. We are so happy to see Morgan receive recognition for all of her hard work both in the classroom and in the pool over her four years here. She is very deserving of this honor," stated head coach Rob Harrington.

For her career, Hughes earned All-American honors three times and is on the top-10 performance list for six events in Wooster's tradition-rich history, including serving as the anchor leg on school-record relay teams in the 200 freestyle (1:35.73) and 400 medley (3:55.54). Hughes' top achievement may have been propelling the 400 freestyle relay to an eighth-place showing (3:30.03) at the 2012 NCAA Div. III Championships.

This season, Hughes scored the most points of anybody on the team and was Wooster's MVP while finishing top-15 in three events – 11th in the 100 butterfly (58.78), 12th in the 100 freestyle (53.12), and 15th in the 50 free (24.75) – at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships, the preeminent swim conference in NCAA Div. III.

Hughes graduated summa cum laude from Wooster with a 3.94 GPA while double-majoring in anthropology and studio art, and she was the recipient of a prestigious Fulbright Scholar, which she'll utilize to teach English in Malaysia next year.

Hughes was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a junior, one of 11 in her class, and won a number of senior awards at Wooster – the David A. Guldin award, the Charles E. Hurst prize in sociology and anthropology, and the George Olson prize in art. She received honors on her senior independent study, "The Canyon as Home: Accessing Food, Water, Education, and Employment in Tijuana's Former Municipal Landfill."

Also noteworthy, Hughes served as the president of Wooster's Young Life chapter and studied abroad one semester.