Maggie Blazo and Gabby MacPherson receive Academic All-America® honors

AUSTIN, Texas (June 15, 2022) – Milligan University women's swimmers Maggie Blazo and Gabby MacPherson were tabbed as members of the Academic All-America® At-Large First Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Wednesday afternoon.

Blazo repeats as a First Team Academic All-American and becomes the first two-time Academic All-American in Milligan University history. MacPherson claims Second Team Academic All-America honors in her first year eligible. The duo are Milligan's 13th and 14th Academic All-Americans all-time.

After earning Academic All-America applause and graduating as Milligan's most decorated swimmer of all-time last spring, Blazo returned to the pool for Milligan as a graduate student. She earned an accelerated MBA this spring with a 4.0 GPA and captained the Buffs to their best women's swimming season to date.

Blazo captured her final individual All-American honor with a fourth-place finish in the 200 yard freestyle. It was her fifth different individual event in which she collected All-American honors. She swam on all five of Milligan's All-American relays this winter and claimed the AAC title in the 200 freestyle and was the conference runner-up in the 50 free and 100 free. Blazo concludes her time as a Buff as an eight-time individual All-American, nine-time relay All-American and two-time Academic All-American.

MacPherson collected seven All-America honors in her NAIA National Championship debut this winter. She finished fourth in the 1650 freestyle and seventh in the 200 butterfly and was on all five of the Buffs' All-American relays. MacPherson was awarded the AAC Women's Swimmer of the Year after claiming AAC titles in the 200 fly, 500 free and 1650 free.

MacPherson owns a 3.81 cumulative GPA in nursing heading into her junior year.

As a team, Milligan won its first-ever Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) championship and finished fifth at the NAIA National Championships in 2021-22.

Milligan was one of five institutions to have multiple Academic All-America At-Large honorees. The At-Large category includes student-athletes from swimming, tennis, lacrosse, golf, bowling, wrestling and competitive cheer.