NEW ORLEANS, La. - - Three individuals and both Wilmington University cross country teams were honored today as the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced their NCAA Division II Cross Country Individual and Team Academic Awards on Thursday.
Both the men's and women's teams made the list as a whole, as the women finished with a Wilmington Athletics Department best 3.62 cumulative grade point average while the men claimed a spot with a team GPA of 3.20.
Across the NCAA Division II landscape, 156 women's teams and 115 men's squads captured All-Academic Team honors. Teams must have compiled a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 and must have scored at an NCAA Division II regional meet to qualify for All-Academic awards.
A total of 164 institutions earned Scholar Team honors, with 110 of those schools seeing both of their men's and women's programs pick up the award.
Individually, the men placed three student-athletes on the USTFCCCA Individual Academic Awards list, as Ken Fontal, Korey Jeffries, and Miguel Suero all surpassed the criteria.
The individual All-Academic honor was awarded to those athletes who have compiled a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.25 and finished among the top 30 percent of eligible runners at his or her regional championships and/or the top half of the field at the NCAA Championships.
Jeffries, a junior transfer and first year runner for the Wildcats, leads the trio with a 3.90 grade point average, majoring in accounting and finance. He also placed 65th at the East Regional Championships this fall, finishing the 10K race in a rime of 34:01.6.
Suero, a sophomore for the Wildcats was named to the list with a 3.67 grade point average while majoring in behavioral science. He earned a 75th place finish at the East Regional Championship this season, crossing the line in 34:36.4.
Competing in his senior season, Fontal led the Wildcats on the course while capturing the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Runner of the Year award for winning the CACC Championship, before placing a team best seventh place at the East Regional Championships. He ran the 10K race in the 31:59.2 to earn All-Region as well. He carries a 3.65 cumulative grade point average while studying finance at Wilmington.
Overall, 404 women earned the honors from 137 different institutions, with a whopping 53 laying claim to a perfect 4.00 grade point average. Five squads in California Baptist, Northern Michigan, Pittsburg State, Union, and Montevallo saw each member of its varsity line-up on the All-Academic List. Another ten schools posted six All-Academic honorees.
On the men's side, 269 individuals represented 118 different institutions, with 20 men notching a flawless 4.00 grade point average. Bellarmine, Bentley, and Colorado State University-Pueblo were the lone three schools on the men's side that saw six individuals on the All-Academic list.