The Atlantic Coast Conference has honored 51 student-athletes, including 29 as recipients of postgraduate scholarships, a list that includes senior foilist Philip Dority and senior epeeist Amanda Pirkowski from the recently crowned 2024 ACC Championship Notre Dame Fencing Team. Two national champions, senior Jadin O’Brien, from the Irish track and field team, and senior Colin Hagstrom, from the men’s lacrosse team, also were selected for an ACC Excellence Awards.
Pirkowski was one of three student-athletes selected for the Jim & Pat Thacker Scholarship Award. The Thacker Award, which originated in 2005, is awarded in honor of the late Jim and Pat Thacker of Charlotte, North Carolina. Jim Thacker was the primary play-by-play announcer for the ACC’s first television network. Recipients of the award must demonstrate outstanding performance both in athletic competition and in the classroom and intend to further their education through postgraduate studies at an ACC institution.
Pirkowski has helped the Irish capture a team national championship and three women’s ACC team titles during her illustrious career in South Bend. She won the 2022 ACC women’s epee title and was named the ACC Women’s Fencing MVP. Pirkowski has a career record of 133-55 over her four seasons at Notre Dame.
Dority was among the 26 student-athletes to earn the Weaver-James-Corrigan-Swofford Award, named in honor of the late Jim Weaver, Bob James, Gene Corrigan, and John Swofford, the first four ACC commissioners.
Dority won the 2023 ACC Championship in men’s foil in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Following his impressive season Dority was named the ACC Fencing Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2023. He finished his junior season with a record of 45-18 and has a career mark of 75-29.
Hagstrom and O’Brien were honored, along with 24 other student-athletes, as 2024 Excellence Award recipients. The ACC Excellence Award recognizes outstanding graduates from our ACC member institutions. The goal of the award is to highlight the students embodying the student-athlete ideal. The awardees are exemplary students, athletes, and contributors to the community and society and serve as an example to their fellow students.
Hagstrom helped the Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse team capture its first national title in program history in 2023. The senior appeared in every game as a faceoff specialist during the 2023 campaign, winning 61 faceoffs and collecting 28 ground balls. Hagstrom has scored three goals in his Notre Dame career, all coming during his junior season.
O’Brien has been a decorated senior standout for the Notre Dame track and field program. She recently took home the women’s pentathlon title at the 2024 ACC Indoor Championships, claiming the crown for the third straight year in the event. O’Brien’s success hasn’t stopped at the conference level – she won her first national title in the women’s indoor pentathlon in 2023 with a gold medal score of 4,512 and personal bests in the 60 meter hurdles and high jump. In the 2023 Outdoor NCAA’s, she finished seventh in the heptathlon with personal bests in the javelin, shot put and 200 meter race. O’Brien was also named the 2023 ACC Indoor Scholar-Athlete of the Year. After another successful indoor season, she’s qualified to compete in the 2024 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships set for March 8-9.
The Weaver-James-Corrigan-Swofford and Jim & Pat Thacker postgraduate scholarships are awarded to selected student-athletes who intend to pursue a graduate degree after completing their undergraduate requirements. Each recipient will receive $9,000 toward his or her graduate education, an increase from $6,000 in previous years following a vote of the league’s Faculty Athletic Representatives (FARs). Those honored have performed with distinction in both the classroom and their respective sport while demonstrating exemplary conduct in the community and were chosen by a vote of the league’s FARs at the ACC Winter Meetings.
To be eligible for ACC Postgraduate Scholarships, nominees must have distinguished themselves both academically and athletically with an overall minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or its equivalent. The student-athlete must have completed at least seven semesters and complete their baccalaureate degree, at an ACC institution, prior to receiving the postgraduate scholarship, and performed with distinction as a member of a varsity team specifically represented by local, conference, regional and/or national athletic recognition. The nominees also must have conducted themselves, both on and off the field, in a manner that has brought credit to themselves, their institution, intercollegiate athletics, and the ideals and objectives of higher education.The ACC has selected postgraduate scholarship recipients annually since 1971. Over that time, the league has provided nearly $4.7 million to more than 1,000 ACC student-athletes.
Each member institution may nominate a maximum of two candidates to be eligible for the postgraduate scholarship awards. Institutions are recommended to nominate a student-athlete from one men’s and one women’s sport.
Student-athletes nominated for the ACC Excellence Award are also eligible for the ACC Postgraduate Scholarship.
This year’s class of postgraduate scholarship recipients will be highlighted in a one-hour show on ACC Network that will air in May.