TOWSON, Md. --- Moravian University senior Shane Houghton has been named as the 2022 Landmark Conference Senior Scholar-Athlete for Men's Cross Country.
The Landmark Conference selects 22 senior scholar athletes each year to recognize the top student-athlete in each sport based on academics and athletics. The honorees must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.20 and are selected by a committee of Landmark Conference officers, athletics directors, senior woman administrators and sports information directors. Chosen at the conclusion of each sport season, the six fall honorees are being announced this week.
This fall, Houghton was named the Landmark Conference Men's Cross Country Performer of the Year and earned a spot on the Landmark All-Conference First Team after winning the 2022 Landmark Conference Individual title at Goucher College on October 29 as he helped the Greyhounds capture their second straight and fourth overall Landmark Conference Team Championship. Last weekend, Houghton earned NCAA Division III Metro All-Region honors for the second consecutive fall with a 15th place finish. In September, Houghton posted a personal-best time of 25:24.8 for 8,000-meters at the Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh University. That time is the 12th fastest in school history and has Houghton as the fourth fastest Greyhound in program history.
In 2021, Houghton garnered Metro All-Region accolades with a sixth place, and he went on to run in the 2021 NCAA Division III National Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana. Prior to 2022, Houghton's best finish in a Landmark Conference cross country championship meet was a 40th place in 2019. On the track, Houghton was earned Landmark All-Conference Second Team in the 3,000-meter steeplechase last spring with the tenth best time in school history at 9:28.51.
Off the cross country course and track, Houghton has made Moravian's Dean's Honors List seven times as well as being a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society. He will be a seven-time member of the Landmark Conference Academic Honor Roll, and Houghton was honored as Moravian's Blue & Grey Senior Scholar-Athlete in 2021. Houghton, who is a fifth-year senior, is majoring in computer science and user interface design, and he also has a minor in mathematics with a 3.84 grade point average. Houghton was selected to the 2021 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Team for Cross Country.
"Shane embodies everything you look for in a student-athlete," stated Director of Cross Country and Track & Field. "He works diligently to optimize his potential in both responsibilities, routinely making our Dean's Honors List, and he seeks opportunities to further his education as well. He's recently been working on a programming internship with St. Luke's that applied and enhanced his computer science skills, so he's better prepared to hit the ground running when he graduates in May.
"As a runner, Shane was a good, but by no means elite recruit coming in out of high school," Baumann continued. "He saw the way mentors like Greg Jaindl and Justin Beasley Turner prepared, he mimicked their approach, and he transformed himself into an NCAA Qualifier and this year's Landmark Runner of the Year. It was never a linear journey, he had to be malleable and face adversity, even during the last month of this year. However, he adjusted well to become one of the best, and most well-rounded student-athletes in Moravian's cross country history."
Houghton is Moravian's 39th Landmark Conference Senior Scholar-Athlete since the conference began in 2007-08, and he is the second men's cross country student-athlete to be honored. The Greyhounds have had a total of 12 student-athletes from the men's cross country and track & field programs honored as Landmark Conference Senior Scholar Athletes.
