The 2024 McLeod Trophy winner is Fairfield’s eighth Academic All-America honoree.
Maria Beltran of the Fairfield University Women's Golf program has been named to the Academic All-America Second Team by the College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA). Beltran was the McLeod Trophy winner as the individual MAAC Champion in 2024 and the first-ever representative of Fairfield Women's Golf in an NCAA Regional.
Beltran was the third Stag to ever raise the McLeod Trophy as MAAC Champion, carding a 216 (E) to lead Fairfield to second place in the conference championship with the best 54-hole team score at the event in program history. She went on to compete in the NCAA Bermuda Run Regional in North Carolina, where she turned in the best 54-hole score (221, +5) and finish (32nd) in MAAC history.
Academically, Beltran earned her bachelor of business administration degree in finance from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in May of 2023. She joined the Stags as a graduate student for this past academic year, pursuing a master's degree in finance. Beltran was previously named an All-American Scholar by the Women's Golf Coaches Association.
Beltran is Fairfield's eighth CSC Academic All-America honoree and the first since Mike Caruso (Baseball) in 2021. She is the Stags' first women's golfer to earn the distinction.
To qualify for CSC Academic All-America consideration, a student-athlete must maintain a GPA of 3.5 or higher while recording exemplary performance in competition. Women's golf is included in the "At-Large" category as one of 12 NCAA women's sports (field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, water polo, bowling, fencing, rifle, rowing, skiing, golf, gymnastics, and beach volleyball).
Among the 50 "At-Large" honorees in the Women's Division I category, Beltran was one of only three women's golf student-athletes to earn either First or Second Team honors.
Fairfield's CSC/CoSIDA Academic All-America History
- Michele Menzo –Softball, 1986 (Second Team)
- Michele Menzo – Softball, 1987 (Third Team)
- Jennifer Derouin – Softball, 1998 (Second Team)
- Adam Ferreri – Football, 2000 (Second Team)
- Tara Hansen – Softball, 2006 (Second Team)
- Ahna Johnson – Women's Soccer, 2008 (First Team)
- Mike Caruso – Baseball, 2021 (Third Team)
- Maria Beltran – Women's Golf, 2024 (Second Team)
