Michigan, Six Individuals Earn USTFCCCA All-Academic Recognition
7/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
July 23, 2015
NEW ORLEANS, La. -- The University of Michigan women's track and field team, along with six individual Wolverines, received All-Academic accolades for the 2015 season, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced this week (Tuesday, July 21).
A total of 224 women's teams and 123 men's teams earned the distinction as a result of earning a cumulative team GPA of 3.00 or higher. All 14 women's Big Ten programs were named All-Academic in 2015 to lead the country, and the Maize and Blue boast a 3.08 cumulative team GPA.
2015 USTFCCCA Individual All-Academic Honorees
Erin Finn
Brook Handler
Devon Hoppe
Cindy Ofili
Anna Pasternak
Danielle Pfeifer
For Brook Handler, this marks her fourth consecutive year earning All-Academic honors, while Danielle Pfeifer has earned the distinction three years running. Erin Finn and Cindy Ofili are also repeat performers, having earned the recognition in 2014.
Including the Scholar Athletes of the Year, a total of 838 women from 207 institutions earned USTFCCCA AllAcademic honors for their combined academic and athletic accomplishments.
To qualify for the USTFCCCA All-Academic Track and Field Team, the student-athlete must have compiled a cumulative grade-point average of 3.25 or better and have met either of the following athletic standards: for the indoor season, a student-athlete must have finished the regular season ranked in the national top 96 in an individual event or ranked in the national top 48 (collective listing) in a relay event on the official NCAA POP list provided by TFRRS.org; for the outdoor season, a student-athlete must have participated in any round of the NCAA Division I Championships (including preliminary rounds).
For the second year in a row, the University of Minnesota led all teams with 18 honorees. As a whole, the Big Ten boasts the second-most honorees (98) in the country, trailing only the SEC (99) in the conference race.
After an historic freshman campaign in 2014, sophomore Finn overcame an injury suffered late in the cross country season to return to form for the outdoor season this past spring. She made her season debut during the first weekend in April at the Cal-UVA Tri-Meet (April 3-4), and successfully defended her conference crown in the 10,000m run during the Big Ten Championships (May 15) in East Lansing.
Now the owner of four Big Ten titles, Finn ran to a fifth-place finish in the 5,000m run at the NCAA Outdoor Championships (June 13) and in doing so, she seized a unique opportunity, becoming the first-ever Wolverine to earn All-America status in both the outdoor 5,000m and 10,000m runs.
Senior co-captain Handler capped her Wolverine career in style during 2015, earning All-America first team recognition during the indoor and outdoor seasons to bring her career total to four such honors. She ran the mile leg for the distance medley relay (DMR) team at the NCAA Indoor Championships (March 14), helping U-M to a third-place finish. Handler also earned the distinction during the outdoor season with a seventh-place performance in the 1,500m run at the NCAA Outdoor Championships (June 13), becoming the program's first back-to-back All-American in the event since Nicole (Edwards) Sifuentes in 2006-07.
Senior/junior Devon Hoppe enjoyed her best season in Maize and Blue, placing third in the 800m run at the Big Ten Indoor Championships (Feb. 28) and following that up with a fourth-place finish at the outdoor conference championships (May 17). She went on to advance to the 800m final at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds (May 29).
As the national 100m hurdles runner-up, junior Ofili earned U-M's highest individual finish at the NCAA Championships since 2009. Ofili set nearly a quarter-second personal-best time in the race, clocking 12.60 to set a new Michigan record in the event, one of two she would break in Eugene (100m dash; 11.39) while achieving All-America first team honors in the hurdles and honorable mention recognition in the dash. Ofili defended both of her Big Ten titles this season (indoor 60m dash; outdoor 100m hurdles), giving her four in total. That number equals the amount of Wolverine records she holds (indoor: 60m, 200m dashes; outdoor: 100m dash, 100m hurdles).
After the NCAA season ended, she went on to compete for Great Britain at Sainsbury's British Championships (July 4), where she won a silver medal in the 100m dash, finishing runner-up to her sister and Wolverine alumna Tiffany (Ofili) Porter. She will compete for Team GB at the IAAF Championships in Beijing, China, this August, and currently ranks No. 9 in the world in the 100m hurdles.
Senior/junior Anna Pasternak scored for U-M at the Big Ten Championships (May 15) in the 3,000m steeplechase, where she finished sixth. Pasternak set personal-bests in five events (three indoor, two outdoor), including a new steeplechase PR at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds (May 29).
Junior Pfeifer joined Handler on U-M's distance medley relay, where she earned All-America first team accolades for running the 800m leg and helping U-M to a third-place finish. She also qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds, running in the 800m final alongside Hoppe.
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard (734) 763-4423
