Huppert, O'Connor Named to ESPN All-District First Team

If more people followed women’s heavyweight crew, co-captain Laura Huppert might have been recognized by ESPN before now. And if more people followed wrestling, co-captain J.P. O’Connor, whose national championship victory was broadcast on the network, would be a household name. As it so happens, neither is the case. But because the athletes matched their athletic achievements with academic prowess, both have recently been named to the ESPN the Magazine All-District First Team.

The two athletes have earned a combined four All-America honors—three for O’Connor, one for Huppert—and seven NCAA appearances.

Beyond their excellence in sports and in the classroom, the pair has two more things in common. Both are science concentrators—Huppert studies molecular and cellular biology, while O’Connor concentrates in human evolutionary biology—and both can’t seem to say goodbye to the campus where they’ve excelled.

Huppert will remain in Cambridge to continue her tuberculosis research. The rower won a Hoopes Prize for her thesis on the disease, in which she studied Bacillus subtilis in order to be able to make comparisons to TB. O’Connor, meanwhile, will be staying on with the Crimson wrestling program, where he will help coach the team while he trains for the 2012 Olympics.

While Huppert’s days being recognized by ESPN are likely over as she turns her focus toward the medical profession, O’Connor’s might be just beginning if he succeeds in his goal to represent the U.S. in London.

Water polo co-captain Egen Atkinson, women’s swimming co-captain Alexandra Clarke, and sophomore fencing co-captain Noam Mills were named to the All-District Second Team.