STANFORD, Calif. -- Three former Stanford student-athletes – Ella Eastin, Lucas Orts, and True Sweetser – were awarded NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships for their academic and athletic achievements.
NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners receive a one-time grant of $10,000. To qualify, they must maintain at least a 3.2 grade-point average, perform with distinction in their sport and be nominated by their institution's faculty athletics representative.
Ella Eastin. Photo by Casey Valentine/ISIphotos.com.
ELLA EASTIN won 12 NCAA swimming championships in individual events and relays and earned 20 All-America honors. She was a two-time Pac-12 Women's Swimmer of the Year and the 2018 NCAA Championships Swimmer of the Meet. In 2019, she became the first woman to win four NCAA titles in the 400-yard individual medley. Eastin, who won 11 individual and relay titles at the Pac-12 Championships, was the 2019 conference Women's Swimming and Diving Scholar Athlete of the Year, a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, and 2019 Tom Hansen Medal recipient. Eastin helped Stanford to three NCAA team titles and three Pac-12 team championships. She set four American, NCAA, and school records while at Stanford.
Eastin graduated from Stanford in 2019 with a degree in human biology. She spent her postcollegiate life focusing on the Tokyo Olympics, but was forced to give up her swimming career because of a condition diagnosed as dysautonomia, possibly from long-haul COVID-19. Eastin always had becoming a registered nurse as her career goal and the silver lining is that she may be able to begin her education toward that goal sooner and this scholarship would help make that possible.
Lucas Orts. Photo by Bob Drebin/ISIphotos.com.
LUCAS ORTS is a two-time All-American in fencing and two-time NCAA West Region foil champion. Orts won the NCAA Elite 90 Award for having the highest cumulative GPA at the NCAA Championships and was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2020. Orts helped Stanford to three Western Conference team titles and led the Stanford men in victories in 2020.
Orts graduates in June with a degree in electrical engineering and as part of his Stanford co-term program, will pursue a master's in computer science. Orts also will do research in the field of computational neuroscience and compete in non-collegiate national fencing tournaments.
True Sweetser. Photo by John Todd/ISIphotos.com.
TRUE SWEETSER is a four-time All-American and long-distance swimmer for the U.S. national team. Sweetser was the 1,500-meter champion at the 2017 Phillips 66 Nationals and earned a spot on the World Championships team. A seven-time under-18 national champ, Sweetser has competed for the U.S. in international competition since 2015. In 2019, he became the 11th fastest competitor in the U.S. history in the 1,500 meters. Though he qualified for the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials, Sweetser chose to end his swimming career with his Stanford teammates this spring.
Sweetser is graduating in June with a major in history and a minor in Slavic languages and literature. He will further his interests in Russian history and literature while working toward his master's in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at Stanford. Sweetser hopes to attend law school and eventually work for an American corporate law firm with offices in Russia.
All nominations include a personal statement from the nominee; a factual list that includes all of their honors, awards, activities; and four letters of endorsement. The NCAA selects 21 men and 21 women each season.
Stanford's overall total of NCAA postgraduate scholarship recipients is 182.