Erin Plews-Ogan

2011 Capital One Academic All-America Team

Erin Plews-Ogan of The College of Wooster was voted on to the Capital One Academic All-America Team for women's cross country/track & field, receiving third-team accolades as announced on Thursday by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Of the 45 honored as Academic All-Americans®, Plews-Ogan was one of just four sophomores, and she's the second Wooster student-athlete so recognized during the 2011-12 academic year, joining women's soccer standout Paige Piper.

"Erin's a true (NCAA) Div. III student-athlete," said Dennis Rice, the Fighting Scots' veteran track coach. "She's involved in a lot of activities (outside of athletics), and does an outstanding job of balancing (everything)."

Most recently on the track, Plews-Ogan broke a nine-year school record in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:22.59 while finishing in fourth-place at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships. She was one spot shy of all-conference honors, which she did earn during the indoor season by running the opening leg of Wooster's second-place distance medley relay team (12:49.81). Plews-Ogan also competed in the 3000 meters as an individual, and in cross country, she served as the Scots' No. 3 runner and came in 24th at the NCAC meet (24:18.9) followed by 63rd at NCAA regionals (23:35.4).

"She made some outstanding improvements (this season), especially in track & field. Setting the school record in the steeplechase was quite an honor for her, and hopefully she has the opportunity to go under 11 minutes by the time she's a senior," Rice commented. "She really understands our system and how to peak at the conference championships."

Off the track, Plews-Ogan maintains a perfect 4.00 grade-point average as an anthropology major and is very involved with Greenhouse (student environmental organization) as well as the Office of Interfaith Campus Ministries. During the school year, she helped with an English as a Second Language class at a local church each week. Plews-Ogan, who received the Elias Compton Freshman Prize, was awarded a Medical Humanitarian Fellowship (through the Lilly Project) to help with HIV/AIDS outreach in South Africa this summer, and this fall, she'll be studying abroad.

Created in 1952, the Academic All-America Teams program now annually honors 816 male and female student-athletes who have succeeded at the highest level on the playing field and in the classroom. Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA, a 2,000-member organization consisting of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.