Six NCAC Student-Athletes Accept NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships

| By: Haiden Diemer-McKinney, Wabash '26
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has announced its 2024-25 Postgraduate Scholarship recipients, with six student-athletes from the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) receiving the award. The NCAC representatives include former Kenyon women's swimming and diving student-athlete Sydney Geboy (Milwaukee, WI/Nicolet), former DePauw student-athletes Jonathan Bruder (Centerville, OH/Centerville), who competed in football, and Alex McCarty (Zionsville, IN/Zionsville), who competed in men's soccer, along with former Wooster student-athletes Ollie Bream (Melbourne, Australia/Firbank Grammar School), who competed in women's swimming and diving, Janaki Jagannathan (Malvern, PA/Whitmore School (WV)), who competed in women's tennis, and Max Wiley (Cary, NC/Panther Creek), who competed in men's soccer.
 
Each year, the NCAA awards 126 postgraduate scholarships to student-athletes who have completed their final year of athletics competition. The scholarships are distributed evenly between men and women across the fall, winter, and spring sport seasons. The award is a one-time, nonrenewable scholarship intended to support graduate study at an accredited institution.
 
In total, 228 North Coast Athletic Conference student-athletes, 126 men and 102 women, have received NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships since 1984-85.
 
Sydney Geboy, Kenyon Women's Swimming & Diving
Geboy graduated magna cum laude as a double major in psychology and sociology, earning repeated recognition on the NCAC Academic Honor Roll and Kenyon's Merit List, which is awarded to students with a GPA of 3.55 or higher. She was a three-time College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District and Academic All-American. Geboy has earned
College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar-All-America honors and was recently selected as Kenyon's nominee for the NCAC Pam Smith Woman of the Year Award. She now turns her focus to law, enrolling at Marquette University Law School to begin her postgraduate studies.
 
In the pool, Geboy qualified for the NCAA Championships in all four years of her career, collecting 14 All-America honors across 20 events, including contributions to Kenyon's 2022 and 2024 NCAA national championship teams. An 18-time All-NCAC honoree, Geboy won eight individual NCAC titles and played a key role in the Owls capturing their league-leading 29th conference title this past season. She was also part of the record-setting 200-yard freestyle relay as a first-year, a performance that established new collegiate-best marks for both Kenyon and the NCAA in 2022 at 1:30.39.
 
Jonathan Bruder, DePauw Football
A biochemistry major who graduated summa cum laude, Bruder was inducted into both Phi Beta Kappa and Chi Alpha Sigma and was named to the Tiger Pride Honor Roll in his final semester. The graduate was named to the All-Region and All-America first team from College Sports Communicators (CSC) in 2025. Bruder was also a semifinalist for the William Campbell Trophy and earned DePauw's 2025 Phil Eskew Award, the university's highest honor for a senior male student-athlete who embodies excellence in academics, athletics, leadership, and service. Bruder plans to attend the University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business this fall.
 
On the field, Bruder was one of Division III's top defensive players, earning the 2024 NCAC Hank Critchfield Award as the league's Defensive Player of the Year. He has collected three all-conference certificates, including being named to the second team in 2022 and the first team in both 2023 and 2024. During his senior campaign, he tallied 79 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 6.0 tackles for loss, and two interceptions, including a 70-yard pick-six. His performance earned him first-team All-Region and fourth-team All-American honors from D3football.com.
 
Alec McCarty, DePauw Men's Soccer
McCarty graduated from DePauw as a biochemistry major, being named to the NCAC Academic Honor Roll, DePauw's Dean's List, and the Tiger Pride Honor Roll. He's also earned College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District accolades three times (2022, 2023, 2024), while also being tabbed a CSC Third-Team Academic All-American in 2024. This fall, McCarty will be attending Indiana University Medical School.
 
The soccer standout was a three-time All-NCAC Second Team defender and earned his first All-NCAC Tournament Team nod as a senior. He helped propel the Tigers to a 10-5-6 record, an NCAC Tournament title as the No. 4 seed, and the program's 13th NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
Ollie Bream, Wooster Women's Swimming & Diving
Bream, a communication sciences & disorders major, earned three College Sports Communicators (CSC) Division III Academic All-District honors across her collegiate career. The graduate will continue her academic journey in a master's program in speech-language pathology at the University of Kansas.
 
In the pool, Bream tied a 12-year- old school record in the 200 butterfly (2:02.95), which qualified her for the 2025 national meet, and then capped her career with NCAA Division III All-America honors in the event after placing 13th nationally (2:03.70). She also holds program records in the 200 freestyle (1:51.14), 400 individual medley (4:29.05) and was part of the school's fastest 400-yard medley relay (3:53.33). Combining individual and relay events, Bream collected six All-NCAC honors, four as a first-year and two as a junior.
 
Janaki Jagannathan, Wooster Women's Tennis
Jagannathan, a psychology major, becomes the first player in Wooster program history to receive this prestigious honor. The graduate collected three College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District certificates throughout her four years as a Scot. She will attend Boston College's Lynch School of Education to begin her graduate studies in mental health counseling this fall, where she will use the scholarship to further her goal of providing culturally competent mental health support.
 
On the court, Jagannathan collected seven All-NCAC certificates (four in singles and three in doubles), while also being named the NCAC Newcomer of the Year in 2021-2022. She ranks second all-time at Wooster with 57 career singles victories and became only the second player in program history to eclipse 100 total wins during her senior year.
 
Max Wiley, Wooster Men's Soccer
Wiley, a Statistical & Data Sciences major, earned three College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District honors, while landing on both the NCAC Academic Honor Roll and the College's Athletic Director's Honor Roll each season of his career. He plans to begin his career as a risk and data analyst before pursuing a master's degree in applied data science or analytics.
 
On the field, Wiley finished his career as a Fighting Scot with 41 points after recording 17 goals and seven assists. As a junior, he earned third-team All-NCAC honors after posting 11 points on five goals and one assist. He led Wooster in both goals (5) and points (13) during his sophomore season and was second on the team in each category as a first-year, tallying five goals and two assists.
Established in 1964, the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship program promotes and encourages graduate education by recognizing the Association's most accomplished student-athletes. The program evaluates candidates on their athletic and academic achievements, campus involvement, community service and leadership. An equitable selection process ensures that all nominees, regardless of sport, division, gender or race, are considered fairly.

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