Chaplin Named Philadelphia Inquirer Academic Performer of the Year
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PHILADELPHIA -- Swarthmore College senior Vernon Chaplin (Indian Springs, Ala. / Indian Springs) has been named the Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Men's Performer of the Year. The Academic All-Area teams were voted by the sports information offices of the 28 area institutions from the Philadelphia-metropolitan area, with each individual Performer of the Year appearing on the overall ballot.
Swarthmore had 22 athletes make Academic All-Area in 2006-07, including Chaplin (cross country, track & field) and sophomore Cait Mullarkey (soccer, track & field) who were listed in both the fall and spring. Swarthmore had three athletes on the men's overall ballot, including lacrosse goalie Frank Mazzucco '08 and golfer Eric Zwick '07.
Chaplin has racked up a host of awards following his senior year at the College. He received the Lew Elverson Award (given to the top junior or senior male athlete at Swarthmore), was named first-team ESPN The Magazine District II All-Academic, selected for Centennial Academic Honor Roll a ninth time and was the Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Track & Field Performer of the Year.
"It's always a tug of war," Chaplin said of college life. "It takes a lot of planning and time commitment to get everything lined up. But sports really helps me. It lets your mind be free. It was really crucial."
Chaplin, a senior astrophysics major in the honors program, is a National Merit Scholarship winner and Sigma Xi member. He interned at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley, Calif.), co-authoring paper "Update on electron-cloud power deposition for the Large Hadron Collider arc dipoles" and was the 2005 winner of national Barry Goldwater Scholarship given in recognition of academic merit - from a field of more than 1,000 mathematics, science, and engineering students. Following graduation, Chaplin will travel to Vietnam to teach English for a year.
Chaplin captained the cross country to fourth at the 2006 Centennial Championships and a ninth-place finish out of 39 schools at the 2006 NCAA Division III Mid-East Regional.
Already an established star on the track, Chaplin solidified his status as one of the top runners in the Swarthmore history. He completes his collegiate running career with four school records-- the indoor mile, the indoor 800 meters, the indoor distance medley relay and the outdoor 4x800 relay--and is an 10-time Centennial Conference Championship medalist (the most recent being a bronze medal in 2007 on the 4 x 800 meter relay).