College Sports Information Directors of America

2016-17 CoSIDA Academic All-America® Men's and Women's Track & Field/Cross Country Teams release dates:

College Division Teams: PDF | doc
NCAA Division III Teams: Wednesday, June 21
NCAA Division II Teams: Thursday, June 22
NCAA Division I Teams: Friday, June 23

Academic All-America® Program Index Page

Leah Esposito of Carroll and Matt Hall of Taylor Lead CoSIDA Academic All-America® College Division Track & Field/Cross Country Teams

AUSTIN, Texas – Senior Leah Esposito of Carroll College and senior Matt Hall of Taylor University headline the 2016-17 CoSIDA Academic All-America® College Division Track & Field/Cross Country Teams as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
           
The CoSIDA Academic All-America® College Division Track & Field/Cross Country Teams are comprised of student-athletes from NAIA, Canadian and two-year institutions.
 
Esposito has been named as the Academic All-America® of the Year for College Division women’s track & field and cross country for the second straight year while Hall has been selected as the 2016-17 Academic All-America® of the Year for College Division men’s track & field and cross country.
 
After taking home the top honor as a junior in 2015-16, Esposito overcame a pulmonary embolism to earn her third-straight individual Frontier Conference cross country title before earning All-American honors in cross country, indoor track and closing her career with her 19th All-America honor this spring after finishing second at the outdoor track and field national championship in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The senior from Helena, Montana, has  a 3.97 cumulative grade-point average as a biology major.
 
Hall earned first-team honors as a junior and took home the top men’s honor after capping a stellar career with a third place finish and All-American honors in the 5,000-meters at the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships. The senior from Crete, Illinois, carries a 3.87 G.P.A. in computer science and earned All-American honors in cross country, the 5,000-meter run at the NAIA Indoor Track and field national championships, and the 5,000-meters at the NAIA outdoor track and field national championships. Hall was selected as the Gates-Howard Award winner as TU's top male student-athletes for the 2016-17 season.
 
Joining Esposito as a repeat first-team selection on the CoSIDA Academic All-America® women’s track and field/cross country team is Doane University’s Marissa DeWispelare. Moving up from the second team in 2015-16 to first-team this season are senior Michelle Fletcher of Northwest Christian University and Kelsey Lewis of Dordt College while fellow Defender Justine Van Zee earned second team honors this season after making the top team a year ago.
 
DeWispelare, who is a senior from David City, Nebraska, posted a school record time of 10:23.99 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase to win the NAIA National Championship for the second straight year. She is only the third woman to repeat in the steeplechase at the NAIA Championships. DeWispelare has a 3.92 G.P.A. as a secondary math education major.
 
Fletcher is from Kennewick, Washington and has a 4.00 G.P.A. as a biology major. Fletcher was a three-time NAIA All-American – once in cross country, twice on the track – and earned All-Cascade Collegiate Conference accolades on six occasions. As a senior, she helped the Beacons to their third consecutive CCC cross country title, placing 12th individually, and a second-place finish at the NAIA Championship. Running the 3,000-meter steeplechase this spring, she was a top-three finisher at the CCC Championship for the third time and went on to place sixth at the NAIA Championship.
 
Lewis finished in seventh place at NAIA Indoor National Championship in the 800. She also competed in the the NAIA Cross Country Championship twice in her career. Lewis is a nine-time NAIA All-American and named to the All-Great Plains Athletic Conference 14 times. The senior from Lachine, Michigan, has a 3.80 G.P.A. as an agriculture major.
 
Van Zee was part of three Dordt squads that qualified for the NAIA Cross Country Championship three times in her career, finishing in 77^th place in 2016. Van Zee has been named an NAIA All-American nine times and named to the All-GPAC team 21 times (twice for cross country and 19 times in track and field). The senior from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has a 3.88 G.P.A. as a health human performance major.
 
Joining Esposito, DeWispelare, Fletcher and Lewis on the Academic All-America® first team are seniors Kalyn Brannagan and Kylie Gokie of Doane, and Molly Jo Smith of Saint Ambrose University, and juniors Samantha Lierman of Concordia (Neb.) University, Chelsea Baker of Friends University, and Ellie Willging of Saint Xavier University.
 
The 10-member CoSIDA Academic All-America® second team includes Van Zee as well as seniors Aspen Abbott of Southern Oregon University, Lila Klopfenstein of the College of Idaho, Madeleine Nelson of Northwest Christian, Kerigan Riley of Indiana Institute of Technology, Katherine Tourigny of the University of British Columbia as well as juniors Drew Chatters of Xavier University of Louisiana, Katie Landhuis of Morningside College and Jessa Perksinson of Southern Oregon.
 
Two different student athletes amongst the 20 honored boasted a 4.00 G.P.A and this year saw a combined G.P.A. of 3.87 among first-team selections.
 
There were four repeat first-team selections on the men’s CoSIDA Academic All-America® team from 2015-16 along with Hall as Alain Dixon of Indiana Tech, Tanner Dye of Taylor, CJ Muller of Concordia (Neb.) and Samuel Wensink of Dordt. Moving up from the second team a year ago to the first-team this season are Will Norris of Northwestern (Iowa) and Mailk Stuart of Indiana Tech. Dye and Stuart helped the Warriors claim the NAIA Indoor National Championship while finishing second in the outdoor season.
 
Dixon took second place in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump at NAIA Indoor Championship in 2017. The 2015 NAIA national champion in the long jump has been named to the NAIA All-America team seven times. The senior from Oswego, Illinois, has a 3.63 G.P.A. as a criminal justice major.
 
Dye helped Taylor’s DMR team to a ninth-place finish at the NAIA Indoor National Championship. Dye won the Crossroads Conference’s 1,000-meter indoor title and earned all-conference accolades for the 4 x 800 relay team at the outdoor championship. Dye also competed for the Trojans at the NAIA Cross Country Championship. The senior from New Castle, Indiana, has a 3.99 G.P.A. as a mathematics major.
 
Muller has been named NAIA All-America six times in his career and also has won two GPAC individual titles, both in 600 meters. Muller was part of Concordia’s team that won the 2015 NAIA Outdoor National Championship. He is also a member of the school record holding 4x400 relay team. The senior from Omaha, Nebraska, has a 3.94 G.P.A. as a biology major.
 
Wensink is a six-time NAIA All-American and a 16-time All-GPAC performer. Wensink was part of a 4x800 relay team that finished sixth at the NAIA Outdoor National Championship and ran on a distance medley team that placed fourth at the NAIA Indoor National Championship. The senior from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, has a 3.90 G.P.A. as an accounting and finance major.
 
Norris finished third and earned All-American honors at the NAIA Cross Country Championship last fall. He helped lead the Red Raiders to their best-ever finish – sixth - in program history. Norris also won the GPAC championship as an individual and led the Red Raiders to its first ever conference title. In track, Norris earned all-conference honors in the 5K three times, winning the GPAC title in both the 5K and 10K as a junior. Norris earned NAIA All-America honors as he finished in fourth place in the 10,000-meter run at the NAIA Outdoor National Championship. He also qualified for the outdoor championship in the 5,000-meter and the marathon this season and is a two-time all-conference runner in the 3K (indoor). The senior from Spirit Lake, Iowa, has a 3.78 G.P.A. as a community development major.
 
Stuart won the shot put at both the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Indoor and Outdoor Championships while taking fourth at the NAIA National Indoor Championship and 14th place at the NAIA Outdoor National Championship. The junior from Nassau, Bahamas, has a 3.75 G.P.A. as a software engineering major.
 
The remaining members of the Academic All-America® first team include seniors Craig Boekenoogen of Corban University and Quinn-Lee Ralph of Wiley College and junior Seth Schenck of Columbia (Mo.) College.
 
The 10-member second team includes seniors Alec DeVries and Kyle Hiser of Morningside, Cam Knudsen of University of Saint Francis (Ill.), Alex Krasuski of the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and Jordan Strand of Northwestern (Iowa) as well as juniors Vicente Blanco of Lindenwood University-Belleville, Jacob Green and Jason Kenny of Morningside, and Kyle Steigenga of Cornerstone University. The lone sophomore to make either national team was Tre Hinds of Wayland Baptist University.
 
The average GPA of the first-team selections was 3.88 and was highlighted by a pair of 4.0 marks by Quinn-Lee Ralph and Seth Schenck.


FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Michael MacEachern, Young Harris College
Academic All-America® Co-Director for Publicity
mfmaceachern@yhc.edu
(706) 379-5106

Aaron Sagraves, Cornerstone University
Academic All-America® Coordinator of Publicity
aaron.sagraves@cornerstone.edu
(616) 977-5415