Eight America East cross country and track & field athletes were named to one of the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Teams as selected by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) earlier this week. Five of the eight were voted to a first team, and are therefore eligible for inclusion on the academic all-America ballot.
First-team selections include University at Albany senior Valete Graham, University of Maine sophomore Corey Conner and University of New Hampshire junior Kaitlyn Dugan in District I, and UMBC's Dominic Devaud and Sara Parkinson in District II. New Hampshire junior Megan Donohue and Stony Brook juniors Holly and Lucy Van Dalen also earned District I second-team status.
Graham and Devaud are repeat all-district honorees, receiving the same distinction in 2009. Dugan, with a 3.98 in chemistry, leads all University Division award recipients in District I with the highest grade-point average.
To be nominated
for Academic All-America recognition, the student-athlete must be a
starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point
average (on a 4.0 scale) for his/her career. No athlete is eligible
until he/she has reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at
his/her current institution (thus, true freshmen, red-shirt freshmen and
ineligible transfers are not eligible). In the cases of transfers,
graduate students and junior college graduates, the athlete must have
completed one full academic year at the nominating institution to be
eligible.
CoSIDA selects Academic All-America teams in 12
programs: football, women's volleyball, men's soccer, women's soccer,
men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, softball, men's track
& field/cross country, women's track & field/cross country,
men's at-large and women's at-large.
The Track & Field/Cross
Country Academic All-America teams will be announced Tuesday, June 22
for the men and Thursday, June 24 for the women.