UMBC Swimmer Ilia Rattsev Named America East Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Courtesy: America East Conference

BOSTON – Two of the most decorated champions in conference history are the 2019-20 America East Male and Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year as UMBC swimming & diving standout Ilia Rattsev and Stanford field hockey’s Kelsey Bing earned the prestigous honors Thursday afternoon. The duo, who each led their team to three America East titles during their career, was chosen from a group of 15 student-athletes who were named Scholar-Athletes in their respective sports this year.

2019-20 America East Scholar-Athletes of the Year
Male: Ilia Rattsev, UMBC, Sr. – Men’s Swimming & Diving

• Joins Billy Heavner (2014-15) and Liam Paddock (2012-13) as Retrievers to win the award.
• Graduated with a 3.97 GPA in bioformatics and computational biology.
• Third-team CoSIDA Academic At-Large All-American in 2020.
• America East Presidential Scholar-Athlete for graduating with greater than a 3.75 GPA.
• Earned the 2020 America East Elite 18 Award for having the highest GPA among top male performers at the 2020 #AESD Championship.
• Three-time America East All-Academic Selection.
• Won seven gold medals at the 2020 Swimming & Diving Championship (3 individual, 4 relay).
• Earned the 2020 David Alexander Coaches’ Award for tabulating the most career America East championship points.
• 21-time America East individual champion and helped UMBC win three America East championships.

Female: Kelsey Bing, Stanford, Sr. – Field Hockey

• Graduated with a 3.95 GPA majoring in mechanical engineering.
• First-team CoSIDA Academic At-Large All-American in 2020
• Named a NFHCA Scholar of Distinction and to the National Academic Squad.
• Three-time America East All-Academic Selection.
• Second-team NFHCA All-American and three-time career All-American.
• Named America East Goalkeeper of the Year and First-Team All-Conference selection for the third time.
• Led Stanford to three America East titles.

Rattsev and Bing excelled as student-athletes this year, embodying the conference’s three pillars of the complete student-athlete. The Scholar-Athletes of the Year were voted on by the conference’s Student-Athlete Engagement Committee. Each year, the committee elects a Scholar-Athlete in each of the league’s 18 championship sports following the fall, winter and spring seasons and from that group, chooses one male and one female as the conference’s Scholar-Athletes of the Year.

2019-20 America East Scholar-Athlete releases:

• Fall
• Winter
• Spring 

Listing of all-time America East Scholar-Athletes of the Year.

America East is proud to have one of most comprehensive academic awards programs in the country, which honors over two-thirds of its student-athletes for their success in the classroom, including its sports Scholar-Athletes, All-Academic honorees, Presidential Scholar-Athletes, Elite 18 honorees and Honor Roll/Commissioner’s Honor Roll recipients.

About America East: The America East provides its member schools and their athletic programs a platform upon which student-athletes can achieve both collegiate and life success through the promotion and nurturing of athletic excellence, academic achievement and leadership, on and off the field.