SAN FRANCISCO – The Pac-12 Conference announced today that CALIFORNIA'S Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk and USC’s Ida Gørtz Jacobsen have been named the 2018 Pac-12 Men’s and Women’s Rowing Scholar-Athletes of the Year. These awards have been established to honor collegiate student-athletes that are standouts both academically and in their sports discipline.

Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (Krakow, Poland) owns a 3.69 cumulative grade-point average as a sociology major and boasts the highest GPA on the California men's rowing team this season. He has received a Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarship and will continue his education at the University of Cambridge after graduation. The two-time reigning Pac-12 Men's Rowing Athlete of the Year (2016, 2017) has competed on California’s varsity eight all four years since joining as a freshman. Last season, he guided Cal to a second-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships and received All-Pac-12 honors, Pac-12 All-Academic Second Team and IRA All-Academic selections for his contributions. Wegrzycki-Szymczyk helped the Golden Bears to a second-place finish at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship as a freshman and then collected a Pac-12 title and NCAA National Championship the next season. On the international stage, he finished sixth in the single sculls at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and competed at the 2017 World Championships in Sarasota, Florida.

Gørtz Jacobsen (Copenhagen, Denmark) owns a 3.88 cumulative GPA while double majoring in global studies and comparative literature with a minor in architecture. She has competed in every varsity eight race throughout the season and helped No. 12 USC place fifth as a team out of 21 crews at the Clemson Invitational in April. Jacobsen was also an integral part in the varsity eight’s third-place finish at the Women's Collegiate Varsity Grand Final at the San Diego Crew Classic. She is a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic First Team member (2016, 2017) and was named to the Pac-12 All-Conference Team and selected as a Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association National Scholar-Athlete in 2017. She earned a Newnham College's Anna Watkins Studentship to continue her global studies senior thesis next year at the University of Cambridge as part of her research master's degree.

In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50 percent of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum of one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sport’s regular season. The athletic accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in the voting for the award.

A Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be named in each of the Pac-12’s 24 sponsored sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, beach volleyball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, men’s rowing, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track & field, women’s track & field, women’s volleyball, and wrestling.

ALSO NOMINATED
Men’s: Maxwell Samuel Davis, ORE; Dominic Pardini, UCLA; Baxter Call, OSU; Will Spencer, STAN; Luke El Khoury, WASH.
Women’s: Roisin Duffy, CAL; Paige Phillips, OSU; Jasmine English, UCLA; Leigh Warner, STAN; Phoebe Marks-Nicholes, WASH; Jenna Mangiagli, WSU.