BLUES NEWS
Top student athletes honoured at sixth annual Academic Excellence Breakfast An impressive 231 student athletes were honoured in November at the Varsity Blues Academic Excellence breakfast. The annual ceremony honours student athletes, who competed on a varsity team and earned an 80 per cent average or higher in all courses in which they were enrolled during the 2014–15 academic year. As recognition, each recipient receives a pin: enamel for firsttime winners, bronze for second, silver for third, and a diamond pin for anyone earning this award four or more times during their intercollegiate career. “Our student athletes are amazing,” said Beth Ali, acting assistant dean and director of intercollegiate and high performance sport. “The work that these individuals put in day in and day out is remarkable. They are so deserving of these awards and I am so pleased to celebrate them this morning.” The Blues also honoured four U of T top scholar athletes who this year earned a scholarship from the university’s Office of the Vice-Provost. Men’s hockey forward Tyler Liukkonen and women’s
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track and field standout Sasha Gollish were celebrated as the CIS sport top scholar athletes, while Blues baseball all-star Tanner Young-Schultz and women’s golf star Sarah Dunning earned the OUA top scholar athlete awards. Gollish was also honoured with a Governor General᾽s Academic All-Canadian Commendation, one of eight student athletes in the country to receive the award from His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, during a ceremony in Ottawa in the fall. Named the CIS athlete of the year in track events and female MVP of both the OUA and CIS championships, Gollish helped the Blues women capture the conference banner for the first time since 2004 and the national team title for the first time since 1998. At the CIS championships in Windsor, the civil engineering PhD candidate claimed five medals, including three gold, and helped set a Canadian senior record – and erased a 27-year-old meet standard – in the 4x800m relay.
Liukkonen scored six goals and led the Blues with 19 assists, ranking second on the team with 25 points last season. The Master of Biotechnology student also added two points in the post season in helping Toronto to the second round of the OUA playoffs. Dunning, a third-year math and statistics major, claimed the 2014 OUA individual women’s golf title and was named an OUA all-star in leading the Blues to their third straight provincial title last season, while Young-Schultz, a computer engineering major, was named a 2014 OUA baseball first team all-star after ranking third in the OUA with 22 RBI and fourth with 26 hits in 17 games. The 231 student athletes represent 30 per cent of the Varsity Blues population, a 12 per cent increase in the total number of all-academic achievement compared to the 2013–14 season. —Lee Campbell
PHOTO/ Martin Bazyl