NEW ORLEANS, La. --- Moravian College has had four runners named United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic individuals and both its men's and women's cross country squads honored as an All-Academic Team by the USTFCCCA for the 2016 season.
Moravian's honorees were seniors Meg Brockett and Sarah Hughes and freshman Katie Mayer from the women's team and freshman Gavin Kemery from the men's squad. Brockett is a nursing major at Moravian while Hughes is majoring in Law and Society and Mayer is studying Environmental Science. Kemery is an English major.
To earn All-Academic individual honors, student-athletes must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.30 and have finished in the top 25 percent of the finishers at the NCAA Division III Regionals last November. That group total 374 women and 290 men including the four Greyhounds.
Brockett, Hughes and Mayer helped the Moravian finish second at the 2016 Landmark Conference Championships hosted by the Greyhounds at Bicentennial Park in Northampton. Brockett won the individual title to be named Landmark Conference Runner of the Year in 21:10.55 while Hughes was the runner-up to also garner First Team All-Conference honors in 21:51.66. Mayer ran a season-best time of 22:20.60 on the 6,000-meter course to finish sixth and a spot on the All-Conference First Team, and she was also the Landmark Conference Freshman of the Year.
At the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional run at DeSales University, Brockett finished second in 21:38 while Hughes was 11th in 22:01 and Mayer took 23rd in a time of 22:38 with all three runners earning All-Region honors as the Greyhounds placed seventh as a team. Brockett and Hughes went on to run at the 2016 NCAA Division III National Championships in Louisville, Kentucky with Brockett crossing the finish line in 21:16.1 to place 35th and earn the final All-American honor. Hughes was 118th at the NCAA Championships in 22:03.7.
Kemery finished 79th of 351 runners at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional at DeSales with a time of 26:44, and he earned Landmark All-Conference First Team honors by placing sixth at the Landmark Conference Championships with a season-best time of 26:30.72 for 8,000 meters.
"It's not surprising that the same students who excel on the cross country course are the same ones who do well in the classroom," noted Head Coach Jesse Baumann. "To be successful in this sport you have to be willing to work hard every day regardless of weather, how busy your schedule is, or if you have a number of other distractions. There are no excuses, you just have to be willing to consistently work hard, and obviously those same attributes apply to the classroom. Meg, Sarah, Katie, and Gavin all exemplify those characteristics so it's not surprising to see them excel in both cross country and in the classroom."
The women's team also maintained a 3.29 cumulative GPA after the fall semester and was one of 216 women's teams to earn All-Academic honors while the men's squad and a 3.32 GPA and was one of 173 men's teams honored. To be considered an All-Academic Team, programs must have a cumulative GPA of 3.10 or greater and also complied a team score at the NCAA Regionals.
"We're very proud to see both teams with strong GPAs," Baumann said. "As much as we care about the sport, as coaches we tell the team they're not going to make a career of running, so the priority needs to be student first, athlete second and the GPAs of both teams are a strong reflection of this."
To view the complete list of the USTFCCCA Academic honorees, visit http://www.ustfccca.org/2017/02/featured/ncaa-diii-cross-country-team-academic-awards-2016#men for the team honorees and http://www.ustfccca.org/2017/02/featured/ncaa-diii-cross-country-individual-academic-awards-2016 for the individuals.
