Coventry's Kristen Gallagher Named Scholar-Athlete by National Fastpitch Coaches

COVENTRY, RI — The National Fastpitch Coaches Association likes what it saw in 2016 from Worcester Polytechnic.

Coventry's Kristin Gallagher is one of the reasons. The coaches gave her Scholar Athlete recognition this season.

Gallagher is a newcomer to the scholar-athlete list, and so are four other WPI fastpitch softball players: Katie Chagami, Jacquelyne DiTroia, RiAnna May and Kelsey Saucier.

But Ama Biney, Lindsay Gurska,Caroline Medino and Hope Shevchuk all earned the honor for a second time.

Also, the program was hailed as an All-Academic Team -- per the coaches' association -- for the second consecutive season.

The team ranked 37th of 92 teams. The cumulative Grade Point Average was 3.410, which represents an improvement over last year's 39th place finish with an average of 3.350.

By comparison, fellow NCAA Division III Softball super regional participant MIT checked in at No. 68 with a 3.279. Overall, the Engineers were third among the five NEWMAC teams that participated and were eligible for recognition.

Student-athletes who achieve a 3.5 or better GPA on a 4.0 scale are recognized as Easton/NFCA Scholar Athletes. The NFCA also recognizes the top 10 academic teams (by overall GPA) each fall through the Easton/NFCA Top 10 Academic Team program and all squads above 3.0 are eligible for NFCA All-Academic Team status.