Ethel Walker School
Walker’s Upper School varsity swimmers have been honored as a National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (NISCA) Silver Level Scholar team with captain Allison Wall ’22 named as an Academic All-American. The NISCA Scholar Team Award recognizes teams achieving high academic standards. The award is based on the average cumulative GPA of a varsity team of 12 or more high school varsity athletes, of which Walker’s had 13 members. This 2021-2022 team finished with a GPA of 3.639, easily qualifying them within the 3.5.00-3.749 range and exceeding last year’s GPA. Wall ‘22, a senior with a GPA of 3.75 or higher, is honored as the fourth Walker’s swimmer to receive the Academic All-American status, following teammates Daphne Peterson in 2021 and Jane Li and Emmy Vitali in 2020.
This is the third time that Walker’s has been named a Scholar team, and the second time with Silver recognition since the program’s inception. Despite the still very different year, including a delayed return in January, mask-wearing, and no spectators at championships, the team was still able to compete against other teams in roughly a dozen in-person dual meets and finished the season as NEPSAC Finalists, also tallying new school records in two individual events in the process.
“It’s always amazing to have the spotlight on students for what they accomplish in their every day routine. Knowing that they take care of what they need to do from class to class allows us to spend each afternoon focusing entirely on the work they have to put in when they get into the pool,” says Athletic Director and Head Varsity Swim Coach Kati Eggert. “The team was determined to make the best of it; they were itching for success after a year with no real meets. They weren’t scared to try to take it all on. We – assistant coaches Dr. Sheldon and Coach Mabrouk, and I – knew we had a special group after just a week; they were team-oriented and focused on all the little things that lead to successes as students on campus and as competitive swimmers on a truly focused team.”
Congratulations to the Upper School varsity members:
Tapiwa Cronin ’22, Allison Wall ’22*, Kylie Donaldson ’23, Liyan Du ’23, Alexia Grech ’23*, Ellie Lardner ’23, Natalie Stewart ’23, Amelia Peterson ’24, Ella Sabelawski ’24, Molly Thacker ’24, Ava DeSio ’25, Cecilia Li ’25, and Lucia Morales ’25.
*Denotes captains
