Three Harriers, Women’s XC Team Earn All-Academic Honors
NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Moravian College women’s cross country team was one of 215 programs in the NCAA Division III earning United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic Team honors this fall.
NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Moravian College women's cross country team was one of 215 programs in the NCAA Division III earning United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic Team honors this fall.
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 Greyhounds boasted a team GPA of 3.47 while winning their second Landmark Conference championship in the last three years.
Individually, women's team standouts juniors Claire Del Casale and Emily Lambright were among 308 harriers earning USTFCCCA All-Academic honors. Honorees must have compiled a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or greater and must have finished among the top 25 percent of finishers at their respective regional championships. Those 308 women hail from 129 different institutions and 35 different conferences.
Del Casale accumulated a 3.37 GPA in her business management major while finishing in 27th of 358 runners to garner All-Region honors at the Division III Mideast Regional meet at Lehigh University's Goodman Campus in November.
Lambright, an economics major, was one of 12 student-athletes reporting a 4.00 GPA in Division III, and the junior turned in a personal record time to finish 66th at the regional championships.
Junior Dillon Farrell of the men's team was selected for USTFCCCA All-Academic honors for the second straight year after posting a 3.46 GPA while majoring in nursing and turning in one of the most successful seasons in school history.
Farrell broke his own school record for the 8,000-meter run with a time of 24:35 at the Princeton University Invitational in October. He now owns seven of the top nine 8K times in the school record books. Farrell won the Landmark Conference Championship race in Washington, D.C. before qualifying for the NCAA Championships for the second consecutive year with an 11th place, All-Region finish out of 365 at the Mideast regional qualifier at Lehigh.
"Division III is all about being a student-athlete, and effectively balancing workloads and time commitment," head coach Jesse Baumann said. "Running demands about 48 weeks of training and up to two hours of your time each day in order to be successful. All three of them are involved in some very work-intensive, time-demanding majors, so to be some of the top athletes in their region while maintaining the GPA's they do is very impressive. It's something this program and college can be very proud of."
All three harriers are competing in the distance races this winter for the indoor track & field teams and return to action on Saturday, Feb. 22 at the Kutztown University Indoor Last Chance Qualifier.
