Florida Tech Rowing Alum Makes Senior National Team

By  //  July 13, 2014

florida tech panthers sports roundup

12 Florida Tech Tennis Players Earn ITA Scholar Athlete Honors

TENNIS — The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its 2014 ITA All-Academic Men’s and Women’s Teams and Scholar Athletes yesterday afternoon, and 12 Florida Tech student-athletes received the postseason honor.

The women’s tennis program earned its sixth consecutive ITA All-Academic Team award, boasting a team GPA of at least 3.2 throughout the 2013-14 campaign.

For the sixth consecutive season, Florida Tech women's tennis earned ITA All-Academic Team honors. (Florida Tech image)
For the sixth consecutive season, Florida Tech women’s tennis earned ITA All-Academic Team honors. (Florida Tech image)

On the women’s side, 10 student-athletes were named ITA Scholar Athletes as Charoo Agrawal,Chloe Chanley, Katie Close, Kristina Huba, Gwendolyn Kauffmann, Mandy Lam, Meritt Rabson, Aly Ruschak, Flavia Zisi Tegou and Jessica Widmark had a 3.5 GPA or higher during the 2013-14 season.

Huba closes out her historic Florida tech career with yet another ITA award, as the Ascona, Switzerland native was named to the ITA All-America Singles Team in late June.

Huba earned ITA Scholar Athlete honors for the third consecutive season, while Chanley, Widmark, Kauffmann and Ruschak received the postseason honor for the second time in as many seasons.

Beau Fieldsend
Beau Fieldsend

Bruno Rodrigues and Beau Fieldsend represented the men’s tennis program on the ITA Scholar Athlete Team.

Fieldsend led the No. 49 Panthers with 13 wins in doubles action and 11 in singles play, two against regionally-ranked opponents.

A student-athlete must meet three criteria to earn the scholar-athlete honor, including: maintaining a GPA of at least 3.5 on a 4.0 scale throughout the academic year, be a varsity letter winner and must have been enrolled at their present school for at least two semesters.

The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any ITA program that has a cumulative team GPA of 3.20 or above on a 4.0 scale.

Men’s Rowing Alum Taylor Brown Makes Senior National Team

ROWING – Florida Tech alum Taylor Brown made the United States Senior National Team after winning the coxed pair at the Senior I World Championship Trials on Mercer Lake.

Taylor Brown (left), racing in the six seat in front of Paul Bunkers, made his first U.S. National Team is the coxed pair at the Senior I World Championship Trials. (Florida Tech image)
Taylor Brown (left), racing in the six seat in front of Paul Bunkers, made his first U.S. National Team is the coxed pair at the Senior I World Championship Trials. (Florida Tech image)

A 2009 graduate of FIT’s mechanical engineering program, he helped Penn AC nearly achieve a 24-second win at a time of 7:23.94.

He occupied the bow seat, while Jack Carlson coxed the boat and Henry Hoffstot was the stroke.

Both Carlson and Hoffstot are alums of Georgetown University.

“It’s a huge, exciting opportunity to represent my country,” said Taylor.

“We rowed together for about six days prior to trials, so we don’t know how fast we can get the boat moving. We have less than two months to figure that out. Our goal is to make the final in our event. To earn a medal would be outstanding.”

Leading up to the race, Brown will work his full time job as a data analyst for HealthQx in the Philadelphia area and train two times a day during the work week.

On the weekends, his crew will look to practice as many as three times a day for the World Rowing Championships, scheduled for Aug. 24-31 in Amsterdam.

Brown started rowing as a 14-year-old freshman at Winter Park High School in 2001. He attended Florida Tech from 2005-09.