WSCU Mountaineers track and field earn academic honors

The Mountaineers took home 11 all-academic individual awards, while both the men and women earned all-academic team honors.

 After earning the USTFCCCA Outdoor Track & Field Men’s Scholar Team Award the past two seasons for having the top team grade-point average (GPA), the Western men were unable to three-peat in 2014. However, the Mountaineer men did finish with a 3.11 GPA to earn All-Academic Team honors. The Western men were one of 50 NCAA Division II teams to finish with a cumulative team GPA of 3.00 or higher. The women also earned USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors with a cumulative team GPA of 3.49. Only 12 of the 105 Division II women’s programs earning the award finished with a higher GPA than the Mountaineer women. 

Individually, three Mountaineer men were named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team. For the women, eight Mountaineers made the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team. To qualify for the USTFCCCA All-Academic Track and Field Team, the student-athlete must have compiled a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 and have reached a provisional or automatic qualifying standard for the NCAA Championships in either indoor or outdoor seasons.

 Making the men’s team from Western were distance runners Ed Cleary (Fr., Fort Collins, Colo.), John Patterson (Fr., Fort Collins, Colo.) and Garrett Wilson (Sr., Highlands Ranch, Colo.). Cleary, a biology major, had a 3.28 GPA through the season, while Patterson maintained a 3.54 GPA as a mathematics major, and Wilson, now a Western grad, had a 3.31 GPA as a history major. 

The Mountaineer women had three of the eight USTFCCCA All-Academic Team award winners with a GPA higher than 3.90. Those three women were Dominika Kaszuba (So., Poland), Tara Richardson (Sr., Wiggins, Colo.) and Toni Stoll (Fr., Pagosa Springs, Colo.). Kaszuba, a double major in mathematics and accounting, maintained a 3.95 GPA, while Stoll received a 3.96 GPA as an undeclared freshman. Richardson recently earned her second Capital One Academic All-America honor, graduating from Western with a 3.93 GPA as a double major in biology and exercise and sport science. The other five Western women earning All-Academic Team honors were Melanie Becic (Jr., Portland, Ore.) as a 3.70 GPA history major; Josefin Edwall (Fr., Stockholm, Sweden) with a 3.47 GPA; Anna Marshall (Jr., Pueblo, Colo.) as a 3.75 GPA biology major; Cassie Ortiz (Sr., Fort Collins, Colo.) as a 3.81 GPA double major in biology and exercise and sport science; and Justin Podvin (Sr., Lille, France) as a 3.75 double major in accounting and business administration.