Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
USTFCCCA Team Academic Awards
USTFCCCA All-Academic Individuals
Feb. 14, 2019 - The awards still have not stopped coming in for the North Central College men's cross country team following the conclusion of the 2018 season, as the Cardinals have been recognized for their commitment to academic success as well as competitive excellence by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
North Central was honored Thursday as the USTFCCCA's NCAA Division III Scholar Team of the Year, while senior Dhruvil Patel has been named the Scholar Athlete of the Year. Patel is one of four Cardinals to earn All-Academic Individual honors from the USTFCCCA, joining teammates Al Baldonado, Zach Hird and Matt Norvell.
The Cardinals won their third straight Division III national championship and a national all-divisions record 19th national title overall in November, storming away from the field to the tune of a 67-point margin of victory at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winnecone, Wisconsin. Patel placed first in the field to claim the individual national title, the eighth for North Central and the first since 2000.
The Cardinals also achieved a 3.26 cumulative team grade-point average during the Fall term, their highest since the USTFCCCA instituted its Team Academic Award in 2005. North Central has received the Team Academic Award each of the past six years and has been named the Scholar Team of the Year four of the past five seasons.
A total of 178 Division III men's programs qualified for Team Academic Awards this season by achieving a minimum team GPA of 3.10. North Central is one of six College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) teams to be so recognized, joined by Carroll University, Carthage College, Elmhurst College, Illinois Wesleyan University and Wheaton College.
Also this year's CCIW individual champion and a sixth-place finisher at this year's Midwest Region Championship, Patel, an accounting major, is the first Cardinal to receive Scholar Athlete of the Year honors in cross country. He was also recognized as the Scholar Athlete of the Year during the 2018 indoor track and field season. To qualify for All-Academic Individual accolades, student-athletes must have achieved a minimum GPA of 3.30 and finished in the top 25 percent of the field at their regional championship meet. In total, 300 Division III student-athletes met the standard this season.
Baldonado, an actuarial science major, placed third at the CCIW Championship and seventh at the regional championship last fall before placing second behind Patel at the national finals. Hird, who graduated last spring with a bachelor's degree in accounting and is currently enrolled in the College's MBA program, placed fifth at the CCIW and regional meets and turned in a 33rd-place showing at the national championships. Norvell, a history major, placed eighth in the CCIW, 31st in the Midwest Region, and 88th at the national championships.
Patel, Baldonado and Hird are each four-time recipients of the USTFCCCA All-Academic Individual Award for cross country, making them the first Cardinals to do so since the award came into being in 2004. Norvell receives the distinction for the second time. Hird and Norvell also received College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America awards following the 2017-2018 academic year, with Hird doing so for the second straight time.
North Central has claimed a total of 35 All-Academic Individual awards.
