Eight America East student-athletes were named Capital One Academic All-District Cross Country/Track & Field selections, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced on Thursday. All eight honorees were named to the first team and are eligible for Academic All-America recognition.
On the women's side University of Maine's Corey Conner, University of New Hampshire's Rita Ciambra, Kaitlyn Duggan and Kaitlin Kwiecien and Stony Brook University's Holly and Lucy Van Dalen were America East selections in District I. On the men's side New Hampshire's Paul Turk was honored in District I while UMBC's Dominic DeVaud was recognized in District II.
Ciambra, who is pursuing a master's degree in secondary education with a 4.00 GPA, was named to the All-District First Team. Ciambra capped off an impressive career in the pole vault, as she set a new meet record in a winning effort at New Englands and captured her third title at the America East Championships, where she broke her own school mark as well as the all-time conference championship record. She also placed 24th in the event at the NCAA East Regional with a cleared height of 3.70m.
Conner earned All-America honors after placing 11th in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She also competed in the NCAA Cross Country Championship. The 'M' Club Dean Smith Award winner for being the top student-athlete at the University of Maine, Conner is a nursing major with a 3.82 GPA. She was named to the 2009 and 2010 America East Cross Country All-Academic Teams, the 2010 Indoor and Outdoor Track All-Academic Teams and the 2011 Indoor squad, as well as the America East Commissioner's Honor Roll on several occasions.
Dugan, a chemistry major with a near-perfect 3.98 GPA, was named to the All-District First Team for the second straight year. Dugan placed third in the heptathlon at the conference championships and took fourth in the event at the New England Championships. Earlier this season, Dugan captured a second-place finish at the Holy Cross Heptathlon with 4,109 points.
Kwiecien, a civil engineering major with a 3.94 GPA, earned First Team accolades. Kwiecien finished fourth in the 800m at the conference championships and also helped the 4x800m relay team finish eighth in the College Division at the prestigious Penn Relays.
Holly Van Dalen also took All-America honors in cross country, crossing just behind her sister for seventh place. At the Indoor Championships, she was among the top three in the 5,000 with 800 meters to go before failing to finish due to dehydration. Holly is an English and sociology major with a 3.77 GPA.
Lucy Van Dalen has enjoyed an outstanding season, earning All-America honors in cross country and indoor track. She finished sixth at the NCAA Cross Country Championships followed by a third-place finish in the 3,000 at the Indoor Championships. A sociology major with a 3.75 GPA, Lucy will compete at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 1,500.
DeTurk, who is pursuing a master's degree in political science with a 3.67 GPA, picked up First Team honors. DeTurk won the hammer throw at the New England Championships with a toss of 60.91m, one week after placing second in the event at the America East Championships, and also competed at the NCAA East Regional.
Devaud, a three-time All-District selection, earned bronze in the decathlon at the 2011 IC4A Outdoor Championships after finishing second at the America East Championships. He also placed fifth in the 110-meter hurdles. He was honored with the Matt Skalsky Scholar-Athlete Award at UMBC’s varsity awards ceremony last May. The 2009 America East Indoor Track and Field Scholar-Athlete graduated in May 2010 in mechanical engineering with a 3.62 cumulative GPA and has a 3.66 GPA throughout his graduate degree work.
To be nominated, 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. A first team, second team and third team are selected in both the University (Division I and I-AA) and College (Division II, III and NAIA) Divisions. Football consists of just first and second teams.
Information from Maine, UMBC, New Hampshire and Stony Brook Athletic Communications were used in this report.