Abigail Keim Selected As Endicott’s NCAA Woman Of The Year Nominee

Abigail Keim Selected As Endicott’s NCAA Woman Of The Year Nominee

CCC RELEASE

BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott cross country and track & field student-athlete Abigail Keim (Williston, Vt.) has been chosen as Endicott's NCAA Woman of the Year nominee.

Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service, and leadership. A record 585 student-athletes were nominated by NCAA member schools for the Woman of the Year Award, including 192 from Division III.

Keim and two other nominees from the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) – Avery Alberghini (Moretown, Vt.) from the University of New England and Savannah Fox Tree-McGrath (Billerica, Mass.) from Roger Williams – are now eligible to be selected as the conference's nominee by the league's Senior Woman Administrators later this month.

In her four years at Endicott, Keim put together an impressive career compiling many accolades athletically and academically.

Most recently, Keim was named to the 2018-19 Google Cloud Academic All-America® Division III Track & Field/Cross Country First Team, as presented by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Keim was one 16 student-athletes named to the Google Cloud Academic All-America® First Team and one of 18 women who registered a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average (GPA) out of the list of 45 honorees.

Keim also became the first female student-athlete in Endicott athletics history to claim Academic All-America First Team honors and the third overall joining Gregory Capece '12 (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) and Craig Anderson '17 (Franklin, Mass.) on the list.

Additionally, Keim's senior year included the following achievements: 2018 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Women's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete, 2019 CCC Women's Track & Field Scholar-Athlete, Endicott College President's Award, Endicott College Social Science Award, Endicott College Scholar-Athlete Award, and the Endicott Athletics Female Student-Athlete of the Year award. She also will claim her fifth career CCC Academic All-Conference honor in June (three in cross country/two in track & field).

Meanwhile, academically, the biology & biotechnology and psychology double major conducted research on the correlation between concussions and loss of olfactory senses which resulted in the production of several psychology and biology publications and abstracts.

As a research assistant with Dr. Alefiya Albers, Keim designed and conducted drug trials using murine models to examine the trauma of brain injuries, created and ran a Western Blotting protocol to assess levels of expression of a protein of interest, analyzed tissue samples using immunofluorescence stains and microscopy, and administered olfactory tests to subjects enrolled in ongoing longitudinal research studies. 

Keim has also served as a laboratory worker at the Janssen-Heininger Laboratory and Vermont Lung Center and volunteered at the Beverly Hospital Emergency Department.

Keim will continue her studies at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.

The rest of Keim's resume includes the following: the 2015 CCC Women's Cross Country Rookie of the Year award, President of the Psi Chi Honor Society, member of the Phi Sigma Honor Society, the Mortar Board Honor Society, and the Biotechnology Society, and the head delegate of the Model UN team. Lastly, Keim is a multiple Dean's List selection, served as peer tutor and mentor, and helped organize a Relay For Life event during her time at Endicott.

ABOUT THE COMMONWEALTH COAST CONFERENCE

The Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), founded in 1984, is an NCAA Division III athletic conference comprised of nine full member and one associate member institutions throughout the New England region. Its membership aims to provide student-athletes with a positive experience in their pursuit of excellence through high academic standards, quality competition, and a meaningful student life. The conference administers championships in 18 intercollegiate sports. 

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(Photo Credit - David Le '10)