Ten WAC Schools Earn USTFCCA All-Academic Honors
Ten WAC Schools Earn USTFCCA All-Academic Honors
NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced its 2020 All-Academic Teams for the 2020 season and 10 different WAC schools were honored.
Among those teams that received the award, both the men's and women's programs from Abilene Christian, California Baptist, Seattle U, UT Rio Grande Valley and Utah Valley were honored. The women's programs from Grand Canyon, Lamar and NM State also earned honors. In addition, individual athletes from Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin were recognized.
In order to earn honors, a team's cumulative GPA must be 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
Several individual student-athletes were also honored, earning All-Academic honors by holding a minimum 3.25 cumulative GPA and either finishing the season ranked in the top 96 nationally or in the top 48 in any championship relay event during the most recent indoor season or have participated in any round of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
WAC-newcomer Abilene Christian had three honored as Sean Germany, Jack Marshall and Avery Williams represented the Wildcats. GCU also had three honored with Jacob Lewis, Jesse Newman and Josh Onwordi as did Utah Valley, who had Caleb Furnell, Andre Jones and Isaac Manning earn honors. Sam Houston was recognized by Eric Callaway and Clayton Fritsch and Stephen F. Austin was represented by Chad Horstmann and Cord Neal. UT Rio Grande Valley was the final school to have a male athlete honored as Paul May earned recognition.
On the women's side, Abilene Christian led the way with six recognized as Ella Anttila, Annina Brandenburg, Payton Kirk, Irene Rono, Zoe Spinn and Taylor Toelen were recognized. GCU had five honored with Megan Fry, Paige Hildenbrandt, Madelyn Lundberg, Alyson Schwartz and Niki Xydona representing the Lopes. Stephen F. Austin was represented by the trio of Kayle Bizzell, Mathilde Coquillaud-Salomon and Nissi Kabongo. Three schools had two honored with NM State's Yemisi Oroyinyin and Terice Steen, Sam Houston's Alie Angelo and Halie Daniel and UT Rio Grand Valley's Desirea Buerge and Tamara Woodley all receiving the award. Lamar was represtend by Parl Eelma and UVU's Hannah Branch earned honors
Across Division I, more than 850 men and 1,110 women received honors.
The complete list of USTFCCCA All-Academic honors can be found here.