NEW ORLEANS, La. --- Moravian University has had eight student-athletes named United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic individuals and both the men's and women's cross country teams honored as an All-Academic Team by the USTFCCCA for the 2023 season.
Moravian's honorees were juniors Rachael Goodman and Amber Poniktera, sophomore Tara Smurla and freshman Alexis Hockenberry from the women's team and seniors Casey Frank and Josh Mangini, junior Owen Nahf and sophomore Bryan Kerchner from the men's squad. Goodman is an environmental science major while Poniktera is a pre-physical therapy major. Smurla is majoring in early childhood special education and Hockenberry is a nursing major. Frank is a mathematics major while Mangini is studying management and organizational leadership. Nahf and Kerchner are both pre-physical therapy majors.
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.
"This recognition truly stands for everything it means to be a student-athlete," commented Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jesse Baumann. "You need to earn at least a 3.3 GPA and then finish in the top 25% of runners across our region. Only the top 7 on a team are eligible for this out of the 15-30 runners on cross country rosters, so there are very few who are even in contention for this distinction."
Smurla placed fifth of 189 runners in the 2023 NCAA Division III Metro Regional with a time of 22:10.6 on the 6,000-meter course at Rowan University as she earned All-Region honors. Poniktera and Goodman also earned All-Region honors with Poniktera taking 17th in a time of 22:58.4 and Goodman finishing 24th in 23:13.8. Hockenberry placed 48th in a time of 24:02.6.
For the men, Nahf finished tenth of 177 runners in the 2023 NCAA Division III Metro Regional in a time of 25:16.9 while Kerchner was 16th in 25:26.6 and Mangini placed 21st with a time of 25:38.1 as the trio garnered All-Region honors. Frank took 44th in the race in 26:11.3.
The women's squad also maintained a 3.77 cumulative GPA after the fall semester while the men's team had a 3.30 GPA. To be considered an All-Academic Team, programs must have a cumulative GPA of 3.10 or greater and also compiled a team score at the NCAA Regionals.
"Most of these student-athletes also work campus jobs and internships, participate in campus clubs for their major, or volunteer for other activities while they're training 48+ weeks of the year," Baumann explained. "It takes a special level of discipline and dedication to be a cross country runner to begin with, and then to be one of the top 25% in the region while maintaining a strong GPA is an incredible achievement. We're exceptionally blessed to have eight athletes who meet all these requirements and it's a reflection of why we had a lot of success with our distance team this year. We have a team full of devoted, dedicated, intrinsically motivated, high character individuals. It makes coaching them extremely rewarding."
To view the complete list of the USTFCCCA Academic honorees, visit https://www.ustfccca.org/2024/02/featured/2023-ustfccca-college-program-divisions-cross-country-academic-awards.
