The College of Wooster's Ella Biondi, Ella Dean, and Mackenzie Riccitelli are part of the College Sports Communicators' Academic All-District® Team for women's basketball, as announced by the organization on Tuesday.

Biondi started all 25 games and averaged 6.6 rebounds and 5.5 points per game as a senior. The center led Wooster with 38 blocked shots to finish second all-time in program history with 166. Biondi's signature game as a senior came against Hiram College with 21 points on 10-of-16 shooting and 19 rebounds. Biondi dropped in 18 points and corralled 15 rebounds at Wittenberg University. As a first-year, Biondi earned All-NCAC honors and was 11th in Div. III with 2.71 blocked shots per game. She tied the school record for field goals in a game with 16 as a sophomore and scored a career-best 36 points en route to helping the program to a record 111 points in a win over Miami University (Ohio)-Hamilton. She tied Wooster's single-game record with eight blocked shots against Denison University in a 2023 game and is one of three players in program history with two games with at least seven blocked shots.

The archaeology and classical studies major analyzed Panathenaic Procession and its impact on Athenian identity in the Archaic Period for Independent Study. The three-time Academic All-District® selection was part of the College's Greece TREK program in 2023. In Greece, Biondi studied ancient science and medicine in the Mediterranean. Prior to junior year, Biondi gained hands-on archaeology excavation experience through a field school program in Greece.

On campus, Biondi is the president of Inter-Greek Council and the Alpha Gamma Phi sorority. Biondi's leadership roles within Alpha Gamma Phi include a term as treasurer and new member education. Biondi is a four-year member of Wooster's archaeology student colloquium and a three-year member of the campus chapter of Eta Sigma Phi, a classical studies honor society. She currently serves as Eta Sigma Phi's president. Additionally, Biondi is a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and works various jobs throughout the athletics department.

Dean started all 25 games and played the third-most minutes on the team. She averaged 4.4 points and 1.8 rebounds as a senior. She scored a high of 14 points against Mount Aloysius College, a game in which she went 5-of-9 from the field and 4-of-8 on 3-pointers. Dean dropped in a career-high 23 points against The University of Olivet as a sophomore and had four 20-point games that season. Dean netted a season-best 22 points as a junior against Wittenberg University.

The biochemistry and molecular biology major plans to go to medical school after graduation. She is a two-time CSC Academic All-District® honoree. Dean investigated whether a C145A active site mutant of Trr1 sequesters wild-type interaction proteins in yeast for Independent Study. Dean has multiple summers of hands-on experience in the medical field as a two-year clinical support assistant with Trinity Health IHA Medical Group Orthopedics in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There, Dean greeted and escorted patients to examination rooms, collected patient paperwork, took vitals, and documented information in the patient database. Dean shadowed primary care, physical medicine, and rehabilitation physicians prior to junior year to hone in on an area of interest in anticipation of attending medical school.

Dean is a three-year health coach through a partnership the College has with Wooster Community Hospital. She is assigned patients in the community and does weekly wellness check-ins with them. Elsewhere, Dean secured a research assistant position in Denmark prior to senior year. In Denmark, Dean modeled Alzheimer's using human-inducted pluripotent stem cells. She is a organic chemistry and biochemistry peer tutor on campus and volunteers with Goodwill Industries. Dean is a game operations assistant.

Riccitelli has already made a major mark on the program, as she has scored 834 points in two seasons. As a first-year Riccitelli earned the NCAC Newcomer of the Year award. This season, the second-team all-conference performer led the NCAC in scoring at 16.7 points per game, which rates as the 10th-highest in program history. She is the first Scot to have back-to-back 400-point seasons since alumna Lauren Hancher a decade ago. Riccitelli added 74 steals, the fifth-most in program history, to her 16.7 per-game average. She scored a high of 31 points at DePauw University, shooting 9-of-13 from the floor and 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. Her eight steals at Oberlin College came up two shy of the program record and are the sixth-most in single-game program history.

The education and mathematics major is a first-time Academic All-District® selection. She volunteers with the Boys and Girls Club of Wooster, mentoring local youth at an area middle school. Riccitelli is part of Cornerstone Elementary School's after school volunteer program. There, she engages students in games and activities and fosters positive relationships with students. Riccitelli volunteers for Night to Shine prom events and area adaptive sports programs.

Each school with a CSC membership may submit up to four Academic All-District® honorees for women's basketball. Each nominee must have at least a 3.50 cumulative GPA, be at least a sophomore in academic standing, and be a starter or significant reserve who has played in 90 percent of games or started in 66 percent of games.