Burroughs Named CoSIDA Academic All-American

Webster University softball outfielder Abby Burroughs (Edwardsville, Ill./Triad) capped her five-year academic and playing career as a Gorlok on Tuesday morning by being named a 2021 NCAA Division III Third-Team Academic All-American as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
 
With this honor, Burroughs becomes the second Gorlok student-athlete this school year to earn CoSIDA Academic All-American honors as fifth-year senior baseball player Matt Mulhearn was named the NCAA Division III Baseball Academic All-American of the Year. Along with being the second Webster student-athlete to earn Academic All-America honors this season, Burroughs is also just the sixth different Gorlok to earn Academic All-America honors from CoSIDA and the first softball player to receive recognition.
 
Burroughs, who was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District 5 selection, earns her Third-Team Academic All-America honor after carrying a 3.79 cumulative grade point average as a graduate student in Biomedical Studies. Along with carrying a 3.79 GPA in graduate school, Burroughs carried a 3.71 GPA as an undergraduate at Webster as she earned her Bachelor's degree in Biology. In the classroom during her five-year Gorlok career, Burroughs was a three-time Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete, a four-time St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Spring All-Academic Team selection, and was named the 2020-21 Webster Athletics Female Student-Athlete of the Year.
 
As an athlete, Burroughs was a five-year member of the Gorloks softball team and in her time as a Gorlok, she leaves as one of the top softball players in the program's history. During the 2021 season, Burroughs was named the SLIAC Player of the Year and a First-Team NFCA Division III All-Midwest selection and in her time at Webster, she was a four-time All-SLIAC selection, including earning first-team honors this season and was also a two-time SLIAC Softball Hitter of the Week, including earning the honor once in 2021 and was a two-time selection to the SLIAC All-Tournament Team.
 
With her four All-SLIAC selections, she became just the sixth Gorlok softball player in school history to earn All-SLIAC honors four times and is the seventh Gorlok in the program's history to earn SLIAC Softball Player of the Year.

During the 2021 season, Burroughs hit .423 in 33 games, and in those 33 games, she led the Gorloks in hits (44), runs scored (25), at-bats (104), doubles (9), triples (2), home runs (6), RBI (33), slugging percentage (.721) and is second in stolen bases with four as she was 4-for-4 on steals. In addition, she struck out just 12 times in 104 at-bats. On the year, Burroughs recorded a team-best 14 multi-hit games and 10 multiple-RBI games, including one of the team's 4 RBI games on the year.
She ranked in the Top 10 in the league in hits, runs scored, doubles, home runs, RBI, batting average, on-base percentage, and batting average.
 
In her five seasons as a Gorlok, Burroughs, who has earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees at Webster, closed her career ranked second in school history in career RBI (122), career walks (61), fourth in career games played (159), career starts (158), career at-bats (481), career home runs (23), career total bases (283) and career doubles (35) and is fifth in career runs scored (122) and career hits (169) and ninth in career slugging percentage (.588). In addition, she struck out just 58 times in 481 career at-bats or just 12.1 percent of the time.
 
The Division III Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division III national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2020-21 Division II Academic All-America® teams' program.
 
Burroughs was one of seven student-athletes from Webster to earn CoSIDA Academic All-District honors during the 2020-21 school year as she was joined by Mulhearn, junior men's soccer players Tanner Haugen (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City), and Justin Kohler (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) and junior volleyball players Kylie Burke (Belleville, Ill./Belleville West) and junior Kyra Gensel (Clarkton, N.C./Harrells Christian) and sophomore volleyball player Lauren Borik (Belleville, Ill./Althoff).

STORY COURTESY OF WEBSTER UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION