Harris named to District Academic All-America swim team

KEENE, N.H. 5/22/12 - Keene State College’s Austin Harris has been named to the Capital One Academic All-District men's at-large team.  A junior swimmer from Essex Junction, Vt., Harris got the job done in the pool and in the classroom this past season.

In addition to earning honorable mention All-America honors in three relays races at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships and being a five-time All-NEISDA champion, Harris also put up impressive numbers in the classroom with a 3.91 cumulative GPA as an architecture major at Keene State.

“It takes a lot of work to keep up with my academic and athletic schedules,” he said.  “I have a lot of school  projects, so there’s many late nights and early morning practices.  There’s a lot of stress, but I’m sticking to it.”

A three-year captain of the Owl men’s swim team, Harris also got high marks from Coach Jack Fabian.  “Austin has great leadership skills and leads by example,” said Fabian.  “This year the men’s team won the school’s top GPA team award and a lot of the credit goes to Austin for setting  an example for his teammates.  He made that one of the team goals.” 

Harris, who’s Essex Junction High School didn’t have a swim team, developed into a relay specialist at Keene State. He was a member of the KSC 200, 400 800 free relay teams that raced to honorable mention All-America honors at the NCAA championships. Harris was also on the winning 200, 400, and 800 free relays at the NEISDA championships and touched the wall first to capture the 200 free individual title at the meet.

Recently returning from Australia, Harris is pursuing an architecture internship in the Burlington, Vt. area this summer.