Irwin Named Google Cloud Academic All-America

Complete 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-America At-Large Team
 

AUSTIN, Texas — Katharine Irwin was named First Team CoSIDA/Google Cloud Academic All-America for the second straight year, becoming the fourth Lobo to earn Academic All-America honors in the 2019-20 academic year.  She follows Jared Mang (second team, baseball), Andrea Howard (second team, softball) and Simon Spangenberg (first team, men’s soccer) as 2018-19 Academic All-America.  Irwin was named to the at-large team, which is generally considered the toughest Academic All-America team to qualify for.
 
The Google Cloud Academic All-America At Large team consists of female student-athletes from the sports of beach volleyball, bowling, crew/rowing, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis and water polo.
 
Irwin was one of only two skiers in the country to earn the honor, as Utah’s Julie Mohagen was also named to the first team.  Irwin was the country’s only female to repeat as a First Team CoSIDA/Google Cloud Academic All-America selection.
 
She finished with a 4.12 GPA in biology as a senior, bouncing back from off-season surgery to help UNM ski to a sixth-place finish at NCAAs.  Irwin, who was the national runner-up in the giant slalom last year, had three top-20 finishes on the season, and he finished her career with 28 top-20 finishes.

The University of New Mexico has had at least two Google Cloud Academic All-America selections in each of the last 16 years, and at least one every academic year since the 1993-94 year.  Irwin earned UNM’s 114th Google Cloud Academic All-America honor.  UNM entered the 2018-19 academic year with the 23rd most Academic All-America selections all-time among Division I institutions.  Additionally, Irwin’s selection was UNM’s 87th since the year 2000, which should keep UNM in the top 25 among all institutions, regardless of classification.
 
Irwin is the seventh Lobo women’s skier to earn Academic All-America honors, and combined with the men’s program, hers is the 17th Academic All-America award, all since 1998.  The last women’s skier to earn Google Cloud Academic All-America honors prior to Irwin was Emilie Cedervärn in 2016, and the last women’s alpine skier was Mary Rachel Hostetter in 2013.