Birk, Brown-Scherer and Fullowan Named to Women's At-Large Academic All-America Squad

Birk, Brown-Scherer and Fullowan Named to Women's At-Large Academic All-America Squad

CoSIDA Women's At-Large Academic All-America Teams

A trio of Centennial Conference student-athletes have been named to the CoSIDA Women's At-Large Academic All-America team - Johns Hopkins' Abby Birk (field hockey) and Maddie Brown-Scherer (field hockey), and Gettysburg's Katie Fullowan (women's lacrosse). All three secured spots on the third team. 

The at-large team includes sports such as swimming, lacrosse, wrestling, tennis, fencing, skiing, and water polo.
 
Birk and Brown-Scherer become just the second and third Academic All-Americans in JHU Field Hockey history. The pair join Meighan Roose on the prestigious list, who earned Third Team honors in 2006.
 
Birk graduated last month with bachelor's degrees in public health and medicine, science & the humanities. She has earned NFHCA All-America honors twice, was named the 2021 NFHCA Region V Player of the Year and is a three-time All-Centennial Conference selection. With a season left to play, Birk already ranks as Johns Hopkins' career record holder in assists (34) and is tied for fourth in school history in points (92) and tied for eighth in goals (29).
 
Birk was a clinical research coordinator at the Johns Hopkins Center for Fetal Therapy this past spring. She has also volunteered as a research assistant at the Monochorionic Twin Lab since January 2021. In the Spring of 2020, she was a volunteer research assistant at the Clinical ARVD/C Program at the JHU School of Medicine, Division of Cardiology. In addition, Birk was a member of Blue Jays LEAD as well as the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Brown-Scherer earned her bachelor's degree in biology in May. A First Team NFHCA All-American and the Centennial Conference Player of the Year in 2021, Brown-Scherer concluded her career ranked seventh in school history in points (82), tied for eighth in goals (29) and tied for fourth in assists (24).  She earned First Team NFHCA All-Region and First Team All-Centennial honors in 2021 after grabbing second team honors from both in 2019 and led the team in goals (13), assists (11) and points (37) in 2021.
 
Brown-Scherer worked as a government services intern at the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) from June to December 2021. She researched, drafted and proposed new hospital and skilled nursing facility regulations to promote patient safety, increase quality of care and replace decades-old regulations. The previous summer, she was a healthcare and quality assurance intern for the DOH. She researched COVID-19 responses in other countries to recommend changes and improves to procedures in the state, as well as maintained data on cases and deaths in the state's long-term care facilities.

With Birk and Brown-Scherer leading the way, the Johns Hopkins field hockey team has made three consecutive trips to the final four and won three consecutive Centennial Conference titles.  The Blue Jays advanced to the national championship game for the first time in program history in 2021 and Birk and Brown-Scherer have guided JHU to a 60-7 (.895) overall record and a 29-1 (.967) mark in the Centennial since they arrived at Homewood.

A mathematical economics major and mathematics minor, Fullowan is the 32nd Gettysburg student-athlete to earn Academic All-America honors and fourth women's lacrosse player, including the third in the last three seasons. Last month, she also became the first Bullet to earn Centennial Conference (CC) Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors in women's lacrosse and third to earn the NCAA Elite 90 Award at the women's lacrosse championship.

On the field, she was named All-CC first team, All-Metro Region first team (IWLCA), and All-American honorable mention (USA Lacrosse Magazine).

In 21 games this season, Fullowan has been a force on the offensive end with 60 goals, 13 assists, and 73 points. She ranked second on the team in both goals and points while leading the Bullets with 23 free-position goals and 81 draw controls. She scored a point in every contest and posted multiple goals in all but five outings.
 
Off the field, the attacker is a member of Delta Gamma sorority and participates in the Community GIGs (Give Ideas to Gettysburg), Garthwait Leadership Center (GLC), and Student-Athlete Impact Leader (SAIL) program. Fullowan works as a peer learning assistant in the economics department as well.