Five Wolverines Honored as All-America Nominees, Eight Named Scholar Athletes

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Thirteen student-athletes from the University of Michigan rowing team were recognized with five Pocock All-America nominees and eight Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) Scholar Athlete Award honorees, the organizations announced Friday (June 12).

Without a spring season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pocock chose to honor All-American nominees, but not to award first- or second-team honors. Michigan's All-America nominees include Madison Byrd, Grace Collins, Lilia Duncan, Jessica Schoonbee, and coxswain Charlotte Powers.

Byrd, Collins, Schoonbee, and Powers were all part of U-M's bronze medal-winning 1V8 boat at the 2019 NCAA Championships. Duncan stroked the 1V4, which placed fourth, and all five athletes were critical in the Wolverines' third-place team finish at the NCAA Championships last spring. They were also valuable pieces of Michigan's 2019 Big Ten title-winning team, earning gold medals with the 1V8 and a silver medal with the 1V4.

These student-athletes were projected to make up five of the nine spots in the 2020 1V8 for the Wolverines, and their nominations reflect their standing on one of the top teams in the country. At the conclusion of the spring season, Powers was coxing the boat with Schoonbee in stroke seat, Collins in the fourth seat, Duncan in the fifth seat, and Byrd in the sixth seat. All five contributors will return to the Michigan lineup for the 2021 spring season.

This past fall, Byrd, Collins, and Powers helped guide the U-M 1V8 to a ninth-place finish at the Head of the Charles. Additionally, Collins and Powers received invitations to attend the U.S. U-23 Selection Camp this summer.

U-M's scholar-athlete honorees include: Paige Badenhorst (organizational studies, environment), Tayla-May Bentley (communications, psychology), Perry Bower (biopsychology, cognition and neuroscience), Annika Hoffmann (comparative literature, political science; 2019 Elite 90 Award winner), Lillian Mei (mechanical engineering), Madeleine Schneider (comparative literature, international studies), Elizabeth Schlyer (movement science), and Erika Yasuda (movement science; 2020 Big Ten Postgraduate Scholarship winner).

For Badenhorst and Schneider, this represents their second CRCA award. Bower and Yasuda are now three-time honorees.

To earn CRCA Scholar-Athlete distinction, a student must be in her second, third, or fourth year of eligibility, have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 or higher for her career and rank in the top half of a team's roster (or be part of a projected NCAA lineup).