Three Tartans Elected to Prestigious Academic Honor Society

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Three Tartans were inducted into Carnegie Mellon University’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa earlier this month. Women's tennis player Katie Cecil, women’s track and field hurdler Kelsey Hallinen and men’s golfer Ian Bangor were selected to the nation's most prestigious undergraduate academic honor society.

Cecil, who finished her senior year for the Tartans with a singles record of 12-2, boasted a 4.0 GPA with a major in biological sciences with a neuroscience tract.  She will move on to the Cleveland Clinic where she will be doing stroke research for the neurological institute.  The senior recently earned her second straight NCAA Elite 89 Award for women's tennis which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 89 championships.

“We are so proud of all Katie’s outstanding accomplishments,” said head tennis coach Andy Girard. “She is a great person, student and tennis player and this is a very well-deserved honor.”

Hallinen graduated with a degree in physics and a minor in history, finishing with a GPA of 3.87. She was a four-year letter winner for the Tartan track and field team and recently was awarded the Dr. William Brown Academic Athletic Achievement Award.  The award is presented annually to the male and female student-athletes who are four-year letter winners and have earned the highest grade-point average while participating in intercollegiate athletics. She plans to pursue her Ph.D. in biophysics at the University of Michigan for biophysics.

“Kelsey has been a hard-working and consistent team athlete for the past four years,” said head cross country and track and field coach Dario Donatelli. “Not everyone can be the star, but teams are built and the foundation is laid with the athlete that comes to practice each and every day and works hard to push or pull their teammates in any way they can and Kelsey has been that athlete.”

Bangor, arguably the best golfer to come through Carnegie Mellon, graduated with 3.84 GPA from the Tepper School of Business.  Bangor became the school’s only four-time PING Mid-Atlantic Region honoree while receiving his second Cleveland Golf/Srixon All-America Scholar award. He finished his career at Carnegie Mellon as the school’s all-time leader in tournament wins (10) and top-three finishes (18).

“Ian has been a winner and a leader for me on the course as well as in the classroom,” head golf coach Rich Erdelyi said. “He is the most decorated golfer in the history of Carnegie Mellon and this is the icing on the cake.  I couldn’t be happier for him and his family.”

Founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary, only about 10 percent of colleges and universities in the United States have Phi Beta Kappa chapters.