As the summer season winds down for the St. Thomas Aquinas College Cross Country team, with preseason training just weeks away, the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association recently released their 2018-2019 team and individual academic awards for track & field.

 

The first USTFCCCA honor goes to the Spartan Women's Track & Field teams as they were selected as an All-Academic team. The Lady Spartans finished the year with an incredible 3.39 GPA. In order to be considered for the USTFCCCA All-Academic team, squads must have had a cumulative GPA for the year of over a 3.0.

 

On that same note, Freshman Duenya Alan was named a USTFCCCA All-Academic individual selection, as she finished the year with a 3.42 GPA.  Dunya provisionally qualified for the Division II Outdoor Championships in the Triple Jump with a leap of 11.90m (39'1/2).  In order to qualify for this prestigious honor, athletes must provisionally qualify for the NCAA National Championships and have over a 3.25 GPA.

 

Finally, Spartan standout St. Jacob Diodonet was also recognized by the USTFCCCA with All-Academic honors. Diodonet graduated this year with a GPA of 3.26 which helped land this most outstanding award, not only recognizing his abilities on the track, but also in the classroom. Saint wrapped up his 4-year career as a Spartan having been named an All-American four times, an All-Region selection eight times and winning the ECC Indoor Track Runner of the Year four straight years. Diodonet became only the second person ever in the ECC to achieve this feat. St. Jacob just started his career in Information Technology, and he is currently training for the 2020 Summer Olympic games, to be held in Tokyo, Japan, where he hopes to compete for the Puerto Rico National Track & Field team.