College Sports Information Directors of America

2016-17 CoSIDA Academic All-America® of the Year

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NCAA Division II AAA of the Year: Wednesday, July 19
NCAA Division I AAA of the Year: Thursday, July 20

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MIT Distance Runner Maryann Gong Repeats as CoSIDA Division III Academic All-America® of the Year

AUSTIN, Texas – Track & field and cross country standout Maryann Gong of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been named the 2016-17 CoSIDA Division III Academic All-America® of the Year, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). This is the second consecutive honor for Gong as the NCAA Division III's top Academic All-America scholar-athlete across all sports.
 
The Division III Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division III national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2016-17 Division II Academic All-America® teams program. This is the sixth year that CoSIDA has named Division III Academic All-America® teams.
 
Gong is the sixth student-athlete to earn the Division III Academic All-America® of the Year and the third women’s track & field/cross country performer to earn the award. Gong is also the first repeat Division III Academic All-America® of the Year recipient as she took top honors in 2015-16. 
 
“It really means a lot to me to receive this award,” said Gong. “These past four years have been a roller coaster, and have taught me what it really means to be a student-athlete. None of this would have been possible without Coach Taylor, my teammates, and DAPER and all the support and encouragement I've received. It inspires me to keep trying my best and make the MIT community proud!”
 
Gong, who graduated from MIT this spring with a 4.00 G.P.A. as an electrical engineering and computer science major, is a 15-time NCAA Division III All-American in cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field. The three-time CoSIDA Division III Academic All-America® women’s track & field/cross country first team selection, received the NCAA Elite 90 Award at the 2017 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championship. Gong, who has been nominated for the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year Award from MIT, was named an All-American in the indoor distance medley relay, mile and 3,000-meter events in 2017. The Engineers finished as national runner-up in the DMR.
 
“Maryann has been the greatest success story in the brief story of our women’s track & field/cross country program,” said MIT track & field/cross country coach Halston Taylor. “She epitomizes what Division III is about. She does not ever sacrifice her academic success for her pursuit of athletic excellence. Although she has earned 15 All-America awards, including an individual national title, she has done so after taking care of her academic obligations. 
 
“Maryann is the model of what I want our program to be,” added Taylor. “She found a way to do it all and put everything in the right perspective. I am blessed to have had her compete for us for four years at MIT. She has moved up almost single handedly to national prominence, particularly in indoor track and field. She will not be replaced and will always be missed.” 
 
Gong, who is pursuing her master's degree from MIT in engineering concentrating on artificial intelligence, was named the 2014 USTFCCCAA National Track Athlete of the Year and captured the 2015 NCAA Division III indoor  3,000 national title. The team captain in both cross country and track & field won the 2017 New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference outdoor 1,500-meter title. The three-time All-New England performer in 2016-17 has been named to the academic all-conference team six times in her career. The Livermore, California, native is the two-time winner of the Malcolm G. Kispert Award (2015 and 2017) as the top MIT female scholar-athlete.
 
“We are very proud of Maryann for being named as the Division III Academic All-America® of the Year for the second straight year,” said MIT Director of Athletics Julie Soriero. “This is an amazing accomplishment by an incredible young woman and something that shows how hard she worked both as a student and an athlete during her four years at MIT. Maryann is a great representative of the type of student-athlete that we have here at MIT and I am very happy that she has been recognized for a second time with this tremendous honor.”
 
During her time at MIT, Gong has done several internships. She was a Double-Click Bid Management Front End Intern at Google, a Google Speech Team Data Infrastructure Intern, and a software engineer intern at A4 Data Technology. She has also served as the treasurer for Engineers Without Borders, fundraising for bridge-building programs in Malawi. She also has served as a researcher for Data-Driven Inference Group at CSAIL.
 
Carroll College’s Leah Esposito was named the CoSIDA College Division Academic All-America® of the Year Monday (July 17). The CoSIDA Division II Academic All-America® of the Year award winning will be announced Wednesday (July 19) followed by the Division I honoree Thursday (July 20).

 

2016-17 Sport-by-Sport NCAA Division III Academic All-America® of the Year Award Winners

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