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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Junior Heather Savage of the Virginia Tech women’s swimming and diving team has been recognized as the 2012 Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year, announced Wednesday afternoon by the conference office. Savage highlights the 2012 All-ACC Academic Women’s Swimming and Diving Team consisting of 40 student-athletes.

“We are very proud of Heather and appreciate the ACC in recognizing her,” commented head coach Ned Skinner. “Heather gives 100 percent in everything she does in life and she has evolved into an incredible student-athlete. Heather Savage makes everyone around her better and she is a true role model for our program and athletic department.”

At the 2012 ACC Championships in her home pool, Savage touched the wall in the 100 butterfly with a conference-record 52.13 to win her first ACC title. At the NCAA Championships, she finished in seventh place in the event to earn All-American honors and earn 12 points to help the H₂Okies finish with their highest placing in school history. Savage, a native of Canandaigua, N.Y., is majoring in human nutrition, foods, and exercise.

In addition to Savage being named Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Tech has 10 student-athletes named to the men’s and women’s All-ACC Academic team. Two from the women’s side, including Savage and junior diver Logan Kline and eight from the men’s side which is the most out of any school on the list. Senior Blake Trabuchi-Downey, junior Gregory Mahon, freshman Kyle Butts, junior Logan Shinholser, senior Matt Baumler, sophomore Nick Tremols, sophomore Ryan Hawkins and junior Zach McGinnis all earned the honors for the men.

“We are very proud of our women and men named to the All-ACC Academic team. Each one of these recipients live their life for our program in the classroom and in the pool and we appreciate the ACC for recognizing their efforts, as well. Further, for our men to once again attain the largest amount of recipients for the Team is something that we are very proud of.”

Trabuchi-Downey, the 2012 ACC Postgraduate Scholarship winner, is one of two four-time All-ACC Academic honorees between the men and women on the list. This is the third year for Mahon, Shinholser and Baumler, while Tremols, Hawkins and McGinnis are all two-time honorees. This is also the second career honor for Kline, as she transferred from Indiana where she was named to the Academic All-Big Ten team a year ago.

Combining the men and women, the H₂Okies have the fourth-highest total of student-athletes on the all-academic team. Virginia topped the list with 17, while Florida State and North Carolina trailed with 12 and 11, respectively.

To be eligible for All-ACC Academic team consideration, a student-athlete must have earned a 3.00 grade point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.00 cumulative average during their academic career.

2012 All-ACC Academic Women’s Swimming & Diving Team

2012 All-ACC Academic Men’s Swimming & Diving Team

For updates on Virginia Tech swimming & diving, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_SwimDive).