LOWELL, Mass. – Graduate student Izzy Giesing has been named the America East Spring Scholar-Athlete for women's outdoor track and field, as announced by the conference Wednesday afternoon. 

Scholar-Athlete winners have displayed excellence both academically and athletically throughout their careers. This year, UMass Lowell is one of six America East schools to have a student-athlete earn the distinction for the spring term.

Giesing had an illustrious career as a River Hawk, both in and out of the classroom. This past outdoor track and field season, Giesing qualified for the NCAA East Preliminaries in the 800m run when she collected a 2:03.81 mark and third-place finish at the Virginia Challenge. She went on to finish 13th overall and third in her section in the first round of the preliminaries, advancing to the quarterfinals, where she finished 23rd with a time of 2:09.09. She also won the 1,500m race at the 2023 America East Outdoor Championships with a time of 4:22.73 and was a part of the third-place 4x800 relay team (9:17.01) at that same event. Earlier in the season, Giesing picked up a victory and personal-best time in the 400m race at the Friar Invitational (55.86). 

Academically, Giesing earned a 3.75 GPA in Environmental Science, before posting a 3.88 GPA as a graduate student in Engineering Management. She is a four-time America East All-Academic honoree and has now earned America East Scholar-Athlete honors in back-to-back seasons, as she was named the Winter Scholar-Athlete award back in April. 

The Scholar-Athletes were members of teams in the six championship sports which America East sponsored in the spring season including men's and women's indoor track and field, men's and women's lacrosse, baseball and softball. Nominees were put forward by their institution, which could nominate up to one student-athlete per sport, then voted upon by the conference's Student-Athlete Engagement committee. Each America East Scholar-Athlete was a projected starter or prominent reserve and carries a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.50.