On Thursday, April 19, Lake Forest College President Steve Schutt and Director of Athletics Jackie Slaats hosted a dinner at Glen Rowan House to recognize this year’s “A-Team” honorees. The A-Team is comprised of student-athletes who received straight A’s in either the 2017 fall or spring semesters.
A record-breaking 82 student-athletes were invited, compared to last year’s 66 honorees. For the second straight year, men’s hockey led the dinner with an impressive number of 16 attendees, which makes up 57% of the team.
Senior and captain of the men's hockey team, Shawn Nelson, mentioned that, "I think having the largest number of members is a testament to the culture we have established as a team. Since my first day on campus four years ago it was made clear to me that academics come first and the upper classmen were always pushing the younger guys to do the best in class."
Nelson goes on to say that, "as a senior and captain, I’ve been trying to reiterate the same message that first and foremost we are here to get a great education while at the same time playing the sport we love."
Following men’s hockey, football recorded the next-highest number with ten attendees and then softball and women’s hockey with seven each.
When looking at the breakdown in majors, 27 students held a major in finance while 15 majored in business. The next highest majors include biology with 8 and chemistry with 4. In addition, 16 students held a double major.
At the beginning of the dinner, remarks were given by President Schutt who congratulated the students on earning excellence in the classroom and acknowledged the exciting trend that the number of A-Team honorees continue to increase each year. He also acknowledged 35 student-athletes that were repeat dinner attendees. Remarks were then made by Faculty Athletic Representative Linda Horwitz, who acknowledged the honorees and also shared words of appreciation for the many contributions that Krebs Provost and Dean of Faculty Michael Orr, who will be departing the College at this summer, has made to the positive academic and athletic culture that exists amongst student-athletes and faculty and staff across campus.
When reflecting on the dinner, Director of Athletics Jackie Slaats noted that, "the A-Team dinner is a special tradition at the College. As a department we aspire to improve each year in both the classroom and in competition and clearly the success achieved this year by both the record-breaking number of attendees at the dinner and our teams surpassing the College record for number of combined victories in an academic year, make us proud.”
Members of the A-Team include:
| NAME | SPORT | MAJOR |
| David Aksoy | Men's Golf | Business |
| George Argiropoulos | Men's Hockey | Finance |
| Catherine Auger-Morin | Women's Soccer | Chemistry |
| Ariane Balaram | Women's Cross Country | Biology/Neurology |
| Kat Beall | Softball | Finance/Math |
| Melissa Bodine | Women's Hockey | Chemistry |
| Amanda Boisjolie | Women's Hockey | Biology |
| Amanda Brunges | Women’s Hockey | Biology |
| Finn Bunta | Men's Soccer | Math/Political Science |
| Caroline Campbell | Women's Hockey | Finance |
| Nolan Carothers | Men's Hockey | Undecided |
| Nipun Chauhan | Men's Soccer | Finance |
| Edward Cleary | Football | Finance |
| Drew Cleereman | Men’s Hockey | Finance |
| Michael Cole | Football | Business |
| Toni Corbani | Women's Swimming & Diving | Biology |
| Francesca Corrado | Women's Handball | English |
| Charles Courtney | Football | Biology |
| Kevin Curameng | Football | Finance/Political Science |
| Britt Dahlin | Women's Soccer | Undecided |
| Megan Dahlinger | Softball | Business/Sociology |
| Annie Dalton | Women's Hockey | Undecided |
| Louis-Philippe De Courcy | Men's Hockey | Finance |
| William Degnan | Football | Business |
| Davis DeKorte | Men's Golf | Finance |
| Boyd DiClemente | Men’s Hockey | Undecided |
| Brigit Dunne | Women's Swimming & Diving | Business |
| Shaye Gauthier | Softball | Finance |
| George Gerasimou | Men's Hockey | Finance |
| Molly Gniady | Women's Track | Undecided |
| Kayla Griffith | Women's Hockey | Biology |
| Olivia Grimmer | Volleyball | Undecided |
| Yaneli Guajardo | Women's Track | Undecided |
| Ethan Hare | Men's Swimming & Diving | Biology |
| Johanna Hendricksen | Women's Soccer | Neurology |
| Hannah Hiland | Women's Basketball | Business |
| Sangjun Hornewer | Women's Soccer | Communication |
| Cassidy Hoyt | Women’s Soccer | Undecided |
| Samuel Husting | Men’s Basketball | Finance |
| Carlos Werner Izaguirre | Men's Hockey | Finance |
| Jordan Jacob | Men's Swimming & Diving | Chemistry |
| Grace Jacobson | Women's Cross Country | Spanish/International Relations |
| Quinn Jagodzinski | Softball | ARST/Business |
| Hannah Kalnicky | Softball | Business |
| Ani Karagianis | Women's Swimming & Diving | History/Sociology |
| Erin Karasewski | Softball | Business |
| William Kent | Men's Hockey | Business |
| Abby King | Softball | Psychology/Neurology |
| Brenna Noch | Women's Basketball | Biology |
| Ryan Kruss | Men's Hockey | Finance |
| John LaPonte | Football | Psychology |
| Grace Larson | Volleyball | Psychology |
| Amanda Lee | Women's Golf | Undecided |
| Cassandra Lira | Women's Cross Country | Finance/Spanish |
| Bron Loiselle | Men's Hockey | Finance |
| Julie Lord | Women's Tennis | Undecided |
| Kyler Magus | Men's Hockey | Undecided |
| Molly Major | Women's Soccer | Chemistry |
| Lily McCarthy | Women's Swimming & Diving | International Relations/Business |
| Luke McDermott | Men's Basketball | Finance/Math |
| Hector Mendoza | Football | Finance |
| Sadaf Naushad | Women's Track | Undecided |
| Shawn Nelson | Men's Hockey | Finance |
| Kara Norvet | Women's Basketball | Finance |
| Hannah O'Day | Women's Basketball | Business |
| Tyler O'Neill | Men's Hockey | Finance |
| Shelley Parat | Women's Cross Country | Environmental Studies/Spanish |
| Olivia Parrott | Women's Cross Country | Environmental Studies |
| Cole Ragan Scully | Men's Swimming & Diving | Math |
| Jan Roessler | Men's Soccer | Undecided |
| Maxwell Rohwedder | Men's Golf | Undecided |
| Alejandro Rubalcaba Serrano | Men's Soccer | Business/Spanish |
| Justin Salonga | Football | Finance |
| Reed Scahill | Men's Hockey | Business |
| Ryan Shalosky | Football | Finance |
| Jacob Soyka | Men's Golf | Finance |
| Hannah Stinson | Women's Swimming & Diving | Biology/French |
| Chandler Straw | Men's Handball | Business |
| Julia Unterseher | Women's Hockey | Business |
| Jonathan Vargas | Men's Handball | Finance |
| Kyra Vidas | Women's Handball | Business/Communication |
| Zachary Wade | Football | Finance |