FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
July 20, 2015 - The North Central College men's track and field team has a total of 12 student-athletes honored by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Assocation (USTFCCCA) as All-Academic Individuals for the 2015 season, in recognition for the combining of academic and athletic excellence.
To qualify for the USTFCCCA All-Academic award, student-athletes must have compiled a grade point average of 3.30 and have competed at either the NCAA Indoor or Outdoor Championships or finish the season ranked in the national top 35 in an individual event or the top 25 in a relay event.
The Cardinals' total of 12 honorees is their most ever in a single year. North Central posted the second-highest number of recipients from any NCAA Division III institution, trailing only the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (16). A total of 297 student-athletes from 106 institutions made the list, including 27 from the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW). North Central is also one of 99 programs to earn All-Academic Team recognition, posting an overall team grade-point average of 3.11. Four CCIW representatives were honored as teams, as the Cardinals were joined by Augustana College, Illinois Wesleyan University and Wheaton College.
North Central has a trio of three-time All-Academic honorees in distance runner Troy Kelleher, hurdler Derek Nelson and thrower Adam Weidner. Distance runners Brent Gaither, Ken Hoffman and Travis Morrison and sprinter Zach Kirby are so honored for the second time, while pole vaulter Spencer LaHaye, middle-distance runners Juliano Lodi and Jake Runnion, distance runner Kevin McMahon and high jumper Adam Poklop are first-time qualifiers.
Kelleher, an English major with an emphasis in print journalism, ranked 14th nationally among Division III athletes at the close of the indoor season with a time of 14 minutes, 37.34 seconds. He earned All-America honors in 2014 in the 10,000-meter run. Nelson, a sport management major, was an All-American in the indoor distance medley relay for the second straight year as the Cardinals placed fourth at the Division III Indoor Championships, then qualified for the outdoor national championships in the 400-meter hurdles, placing 15th. Weidner, who majors in entrepreneurship and marketing, ranked 20th nationally in the indoor shot put (53 feet, 5 3/4 inches) and 29th in the outdoor shot put (52'7 1/4").
Morrison, a physics major, was an All-American three times in 2015, winning an individual national title at 5,000 meters and placing fourth at 3,000 meters at the indoor championships before adding a sixth-place showing in the 10,000-meter run at the outdoor championships. Hoffman, who majors in actuarial science, qualified for the indoor chamoionships in the 5,000, placing ninth, and made the field at the outdoor championships in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, finishing 11th. A biology major, Gaither ranked 28th nationally indoors in the 3,000-meter run (8:28.77), while Kirby, who majors in finance, ran as part of the 4-by-400-meter relay team which placed first at the CCIW Indoor Championships and ranked 23rd nationally at the close of the indoor campaign.
LaHaye, an interactive media studies major, cleared a personal-best 16'0" outdoors in the pole vault to make the field for the national championship, where he placed 17th. McMahon, who majors in international business, placed first in the CCIW and 11th in the nation outdoors in the 10,000, while Lodi, a physics major, placed 15th in the mile at the indoor national championships. Interactive media studies major Jake Runnion ranked 23rd nationally outdoors in the 800-meter run (1:51.95), while history major Adam Poklop cleared 6'8 1/4" in the high jump to break North Central's freshman record and rank 27th in Division III.
The Cardinals won the CCIW Indoor and Outdoor Championships in 2015, claiming the program's 37th outdoor conference title and extending their perfect string of indoor championships to 15. North Central finished fifth at the 2015 indoor national championships and seventh at the outdoor national championships, finishing the year ranked fourth in the USTFCCCA's Al Carius Program of the Year standings.
