C-USA Track & Field All-Academic Team Announced
May 15, 2008
IRVING, Texas - Six seniors, three sophomores and three graduate students make up the 2008 Conference USA All-Academic Men's and Women's Track & Field Team, as selected by the sports information directors for track & field. UTEP placed four members on the teams, followed by Rice with three and Memphis with two, while Houston, SMU and UCF each had one representative on the squads. Two men and two women were repeat selections from the 2007 All-Academic Team. Each team consists of six student-athletes, with at least a 3.2 cumulative grade point average and served as a key component to their program's success. Headlining the women's team are two student-athletes with perfect 4.00 grade point averages. UTEP senior Keisha Walkes is a repeat member of the women's All-Academic Team with a 4.00 as a biology major, with a chemistry minor. A two-time C-USA Academic Medalist, Walkes currently owns the 17th-best shot put distance in the nation with a school record throw of 52'8". She was named the C-USA Track Athlete of the Week after setting the record at the Don Kirby Memorial Invitational in Albuquerque. Walkes also placed second in the event at the 2008 C-USA Indoor Championship. A Summa Cum Laude graduate with a dual degree in Advertising/Public Relations and Marketing, UCF middle distance runner Kristen Zieminski also maintains a 4.00 GPA while working on her MBA. Zieminski ran the Knights top time in the mile (5:06.53) during the indoor season, then ran her personal-best 4:42.30 in the 1,500-meter run at the Vanderbilt Invitational in April. She is a five-time member of the Dean's List and was twice listed on the President's List and among the C-USA Academic Medal winners. Rice senior Marissa Daniels is the other repeat performer from the 2007 All-Academic Team, as well as earned a slot on the 2007 Cross Country All-Academic Team. She currently boasts a 3.85 GPA in kinesiology/sport medicine and was a 2007 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-American. She has twice been named the Rice University Scholar Athlete for Women's Track and Field and was last season's C-USA Scholar Athlete for cross country. On the track, Daniels currently holds C-USA's fastest outdoor time in the 10,000-meters (34:07.60) to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championship and is second on her team in the 5,000-meters (17:34.70).
Daniels is joined on the Women's All-Academic Team by teammate Sarah Lyons. The sophomore maintains a 3.77 GPA as a kinesiology/sport management major. She currently holds the league's best time in the 400-meters (53.63) and won the 2008 C-USA Indoor title in that event. She also ranks fourth in C-USA with a time of 23.85 in the 200-meters. SMU senior Andrea Kvetova recorded the longest javelin throw in C-USA this season, outdoing her competition by more than five meters with a throw of 172' 11". That distance, which is the seventh-best in the nation this season, has already qualified her for the NCAA Midwest Regional. Kvetova was named the C-USA Athlete of the Week on April 22. The finance major, with a minor in economics, maintains a 3.94 GPA. Memphis graduate student Sivan Aballi rounds out the 2008 women's squad. A four-time C-USA Academic Medalist, the communication major has a 3.85 GPA. She has been named to the Dean's List and Tiger 3.0 Club every semester at Memphis. Aballi earned All-Conference USA honors in the shot put after placing third at the C-USA Indoor Championships and set a NCAA Regional-qualifying mark of 16.36 meters on April 18. Repeat selections Brett Olson of Rice and UTEP's Mickael Hanany highlight the six-person men's All-Academic Team. With a 3.94 GPA in mechanical and civil engineering, Olson was named Rice's 2007 and 2008 Scholar Athlete of the Year and Conference USA Scholar Athlete for men's cross country. The senior is a three-time C-USA Commissioner's Academic Medal winner and named to the Commissioner's Honor Roll three seasons. He is not only making his second appearance on the All-Academic Track & Field squad, but was also selected to the 2006 and 2007 C-USA Cross Country All-Academic Teams. Olson earned Top 8 finished in both the 3000- and 5000-meters at the C-USA Indoor Championships. Hanany, who already earned a bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in chemistry, is currently pursuing a master's of business administration (MBA) at UTEP. The 2006 USTFCCCA Academic All-American, is a seven-time All-American on the track. Hanany has also earned 15 conference titles entering this weekend's C-USA Outdoor Championships. He is a two-time C-USA Athlete of the Week this season and was the C-USA Performer of the Meet and High Point Award winner at the 2006 C-USA Championships. UTEP seniors Patrick Mutai and Japheth Ng'ojoy join Hanany to represent the Miners on the all-academic squad. Mutai is a three-time member of the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll with a 3.24 GPA in nursing. A two-time All-American in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, he currently holds the nation's sixth-best time (8:44.88), and won that event at the prestigious 2008 Texas Relays. Mutai was also the High Point Scorer at the 2008 C-USA Indoor Championship with a 5,000-meter title, a second-place finish in the 3,000-meters and fifth-place finish in the mile. Ng'ojoy is also a three-time member of the Commissioner's Honor Roll with a 3.30 GPA in biology. Ng'ojoy placed third in the 5,000-meters at the 2008 C-USA Indoor Championships and has won four individual conference titles during his career. He currently holds the ninth-best time in the nation in the 10,000-meters (28:33.68) and has qualified for the NCAA Championships in that event the last three years. Sophomores Wesley Bray of Houston and Steffen Nerdal of Memphis round out the 2008 men's squad. Bray is a member of the University of Houston Honors College and maintains a 3.26 GPA as a biomedical technology major. He won silver in the heptathlon at the 2008 Conference USA Indoor Championships, finishing with a personal-best total of 5,298 points. His decathlon point-total of 7,251 points leads the conference, ranks fifth in the Midwest Region and 17th in the nation. Nerdal was the 2008 C-USA Indoor Track & Field Performer of the Meet, winning the weight throw title with a conference championship-record mark of 20.94-meters. He is a two-time NCAA Mid East Regional qualifier in the hammer and the discus and earned C-USA Athlete of the Week honors on Feb. 26 and April 8. The school record holder in both the weight throw and hammer, Nerdal maintains a 3.33 GPA as a management major. The 2008 Conference USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships begins today in El Paso, Texas at UTEP's Kidd Field and will run through Saturday, May 17. Today's events will feature the heptathlon and decathlon events, as well as the men's and women's hammer throws and the 10,000-meter runs. 2008 C-USA MEN'S TRACK & FIELD ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM 2008 C-USA WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM *Repeat Selection |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |