Six Hounds, Women's XC Squad Earn USTFCCCA All-Academic Honors

NEW ORLEANS, La. --- Moravian College has had six runners named United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic individuals and its women's cross country squad honored as an All-Academic Team by the USTFCCCA for the 2014 season.

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 325 women and 246 men including the six Greyhounds.

Moravian's honorees are senior art history major Devon Bedell, senior business management major Claire Del Casale, sophomore nursing major Meg Brockett, freshman biology and secondary education major Kirsten Lebo and senior economics and political science major Emily Lambright on the women's team and senior nursing major Dillon Farrell from the men's squad.

"Distance runners have a tough task when trying to balance classwork, honors projects, internships, clinical hours, and other aspects of their majors while still having to prepare to compete for nine months of the year," commented Head Coach Jesse Baumann. "This is a great way to recognize the students who do an exemplary job of managing all those responsibilities at a high level.

"We had a lot of success towards the end of our cross country season with Dillon earning All American honors and the women placing in the top 10, but this shows we've had a lot of success off the cross country course as well," continued Baumann. "Some of the seniors receiving the recognition have already landed great jobs starting in June or just recently have been accepted into some excellent graduate schools so this recognition shows we have some very talented and driven people representing both Moravian and our cross country program."

The women's team also maintained a 3.33 cumulative GPA after the fall semester and was one of 211 women's teams to earn All-Academic honors. To be considered an All-Academic Team, programs must have compiled a cumulative GPA of 3.10 or greater and competed in at least five different meets with at least five runners representing their school at each.

The Greyhound women ran in seven meets last fall, finishing third in the 2014 Landmark Conference Championships and eighth of 52 teams at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional hosted by Dickinson College at Big Spring High School on November 15.

Lambright made the Landmark All-Conference First Team after placing fourth of the 80 runners on the 6,000-meter course at Goucher College on November 1 in a time of 23:21.58. Brockett earned a spot on the Landmark All-Conference Second Team with a 10th place finish in 23:52.84. Del Casale was 18th in while Bedell took 24th in a season-best time and Lebo placed 25th.

At the Mideast Regional, Lambright finished 29th out of 370 runners to claim Mideast All-Region honors. Brockett placed 40th in the regional while Del Casale and Lebo each turned in career-best times and all five runners were in the top 88 at the meet.

Farrell became the men's programs first-ever All-American after placing 17th at the 2014 NCAA Division III National Championships on November 22 in a school-record time of 24:24.9. Farrell was the runner-up at the Landmark Conference meet after winning the title the last two seasons, and he finished seventh at the Mideast Regional to earn this third trip to the NCAA meet.