The Western Athletic Conference placed three track and field student-athletes on the 2009-10 ESPN The Magazine All-America Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country Teams, as chosen by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Idaho’s Allix Lee-Painter garnered second-team honors, while Boise State’s Eleni Kafourou and Utah State’s Erin Stratton earned third-team accolades.
Lee-Painter, from Moscow, Idaho (Moscow HS), earned Academic All-America second-team honors for the second year in a row. The Vandal senior graduated with english and secondary eduatation degrees in May with a 3.86 cumulative grade-point average. Earlier this year Lee-Painter won the 3000m steeplechase, 5000m and 10,000m at the Western Athletic Conference Championships and took 14th in the steeplechase at the NCAA West Preliminary Round.
Kafourou, from Athens, Greece (9th Lykeium of Pireas HS), graduated in May 2010 with a civil engineering degree and a 3.32 cumulative grade-point average. In March 2009, she became Boise State’s first ever female national champion in any sport after winning the 2009 NCAA National Indoor Long Jump Title, helping her to one of her two career All-American honors. Kafourou is a three-time NCAA National Outdoor Championship qualifier in the long jump and two-time qualifier in the triple jump. She is also a two-time NCAA National Indoor Championship qualifier in the long jump and a one-time qualifier in the triple jump. Kafourou is also a seven-time WAC champion in the triple jump and a five-time conference champion in the long jump, as well as a 17-time all-WAC honoree (nine indoor and eight outdoor honors). She also holds school records in the long jump and triple jump for both the indoor and outdoor seasons.
Stratton, a senior from Aurora, Colo. (Smoky Hill HS), has a 3.98 cumulative grade-point average in exercise science. During her Utah State career, she was a five-time Western Athletic Conference Indoor Champion in the 1,500m (2008), mile (2009), 3,000m (2009) and distance medley (2009, 2010). In all, she earned first-team all-WAC honors a total of 10 times and academic all-WAC honors eight times during her USU career.