July 6, 2009

Noelle Lopez has become household name for the Santa Clara community, and her legacy continues to grow with every award that she wins. Lopez added to her already outstanding achievements at Santa Clara with another incredible achievement when Lopez was named to the CoSIDA's Academic All-American third team for track and field.

"Noelle is the consummate student-athlete. She was a leader on and off the track here for four years," said Bronco head coach Tom Service. "Her times in the 800m, 1500m, 5000m and 10000m put her in the top three on the All-Time SCU record board. At the same time she maintained her near perfect GPA, was an incredible team captain and spearheaded several volunteer efforts with the team."

Lopez graduated from Santa Clara with a GPA of 3.99 in Philosophy; she also became the first female recipient of the Rhodes scholarship award in the school's history. She received just one A- in her four years on the Mission campus.

"It's an honor to be in the company of such great runners and students in being named to CoSIDA's All-Academic team," said Lopez. "Many of the student-athletes' names I recognize for their accomplishments on the cross country course or on the track. I'm grateful for being selected to be part of a group recognized for those athletic accomplishments, along with the academic ones."

Lopez was one of two WCC athletes to be named to the All-Academic Team, and she was the only female from the conference.