Wolverine Trio, Team Garner USTFCCCA All-Academic Honors
2/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Feb. 19, 2016
NEW ORLEANS, La. -- The University of Michigan women's cross country team garnered U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division I All-Academic team honors for the fifth consecutive season, with fifth-year senior Anna Pasternak, junior Erin Finn and junior/sophomore Sophie Linn also recognized with individual All-Academic recognition, the association announced on Friday (Feb. 19).
To qualify as a USTFCCCA All-Academic Cross Country Team, the team must have had a cumulative team grade-point average of 3.00 or better and have started at least five runners at its respective NCAA regional championship. The Wolverines met that standard for the fifth straight year, combining for a team GPA of 3.232. New Mexico, the 2015 national champion, was selected as the USTFCCCA NCAA Division I Women's Scholar Team of the Year.
Finn, the individual conference champion, was joined by her fellow national honorees Pasternak and Linn among 13 U-M women who secured Academic All-Big Ten recognition for the fall season. The trio helped U-M to a runner-up finish at the conference championships, extending U-M's streak of top-three Big Ten finishes to six consecutive seasons.
Finn became the seventh Wolverine in history to earn multiple All-America honors when she secured her second such finish last fall, taking 19th place in a memorable event in which she competed for most of the 5K race with no shoes. On Friday she was one of 33 All-American women recognized with this year's top national academic recognition.
After the Big Ten Championships, U-M claimed its 10th-ever NCAA Great Lakes Regional title before running to a sixth-place finish in the NCAA Championships, the team's second top-six finish in the past three seasons. The Maize and Blue now owns twelve top-10 national finishes, eleven of which have come under 2015 NCAA Great Lakes Regional Coach of the Year Mike McGuire, who earned his ninth such honor this fall.
To qualify for the All-Academic award, a student-athlete must have compiled a cumulative grade-point average of 3.25 or better and have either earned USTFCCCA All-America status or finished in the NCAA region's top 25 (or top 10 percent) in 2015.
The Wolverine three Wolverines were joined by 157 other female student-athletes from institutions across the country. Notre Dame's Molly Seidel -- the national champion -- was named the USTFCCCA Division I Cross Country Women's Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
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