Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
July 20, 2015 - The United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) has recognized the North Central College women's track & field team for its success in both athletics and academics, awarding the Cardinals the Team Academic Award for the ninth consecutive season. Six Cardinals received individual All-Academic accolades as well.
The Cardinals earn the honor after posting a team grade-point average of 3.30 for the academic year. North Central is one of seven College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) institutions to be honored, joining Augustana College, Carthage College, Elmhurst College, Millikin University, North Park University and Wheaton College.
To be eligible for the award, institutions must be USTFCCCA members and compile a team GPA of 3.10 or better. A total of 170 NCAA Division III women's programs made the list this season.
The Cardinals' six individual honorees include two four-time selections, pole vaulters Elizabeth Composto and Brooke Patterson, a three-time qualifier, thrower Lina Baker, a two-time qualifier in high jumper Kelsey Kirk, and sprinters Sade Gant and Brittny Olson, who make the list for the first time. To qualify for the individual honor, athletes must have maintained at least a 3.30 cumulative GPA and either competed in a national championship event or been ranked in the top 35 in an individual event or in the top 25 in a relay event in the final indoor or outdoor rankings. In all, 420 student-athletes from 127 institutions made the list, including 25 from the CCIW.
An interactive media studies major, Composto also earned her second straight College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America award this season, the fourth distinction in the history of the women's track and field and cross country programs, while becoming the first female in school history to be honored multiple times. She concluded her collegiate career at the Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 21 in Canton, New York, placing eighth in the pole vault to earn All-America honors outdoors for the first time.
Composto is also a four-time All-America award winner in the indoor pole vault, becoming just the second member of the North Central women's program to do so indoors four times in the same event. She is also a seven-time CCIW pole vault champion, winning four times indoors and three times outdoors, and ranks third in North Central history in the pole vault both indoors (12 feet, 7 1/2 inches) and outdoors (13'0.75").
Patterson, who majors in entrepreneurship and marketing, ranked 18th nationally indoors in the pole vault with a mark of 12'0"). She earned All-America honors at the 2014 outdoor national championships, placing sixth. Baker, an exercise science major, broke her own North Central record in the hammer throw with a mark of 186'10" and became the first woman to win the hammer throw three straight years at the CCIW Outdoor Championships. She also qualified for the outdoor national championships for the third consecutive season, placing fourth to earn All-America accolades for the second time.
Kirk, who majors in elementary education, placed third in the high jump at the CCIW Outdoor Championships, tying a personal best with a clearance of 5'5" which ranked 26th nationally. Gant, a physical education major, and Olson, an accounting major, competed on the Cardinals' 4-by-100-meter relay team which established a new school-record time of 46.67 seconds in placing fourth at the outdoor national championships.
North Central placed 21st at this year's indoor national championships and sixth at the outdoor championship. The Cardinals qualified 12 student-athletes for national-championship competition and earned 12 All-America selections.
