Women's Cross Country Recognized With USTFCCCA Team Academic Award

New Orleans, LA --- The Worcester State women's cross country team has been recognized for its academic excellence this past semester by the US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) as announced by communications assistant Kyle Terwillegar.

The Lancers sported a 3.45 grade point average and beat out Keene State (3.42), Westfield State (3.36), Salem State (3.29), UMass Dartmouth (3.20) and Southern Maine (3.13) for the best cumulative average among those recognized in the New England Alliance.

215 women's cross country programs in the NCAA Division III were honored by the USTFCCCA for sporting cumulative team GPAs above 3.10 while having at least five student-athletes competing in five different meets during the course of their fall season of play.

In addition to having the best GPA among all 19 varsity programs at Worcester State, the Lancers were among the top five public institutions in Division III and finished as school with the highest average in New England. The Blue and Gold were also tied for 12th among overall schools regionally.

Last month six of eight student-athletes were honored on the MASCAC All-Academic Team for their outstanding efforts in the classroom. To be named to the squad, a student-athlete must have achieved a 3.20 cumulative or semester-based grade point average during their semester of competition.

Those student-athletes included seniors Ali Barrett (Hingham, MA) and Jenna Pickard (Peabody, MA), junior Maggie Ingraham (Danvers, MA), sophomore Amy Defrancesco (Tewksbury, MA) along with freshman teammates Katherine Becker (Haverhill, MA) and Melanie Hunter (Maynard, MA).

Under the direction of second-year head coach Gary Juesseaume, the Lancers placed in the top 10 in five out of seven regular season meets which included third overall at the MASCAC Championships and seventh at the New England Alliance Championships.

Among institutions in the MASCAC, Worcester State had 78 overall selections on the league fall academic honor roll for the third highest total in the conference. The total number of WSU student-athletes also marked the highest since the league began listing its all-academic honor roll on a season-by-season basis during the 2009-10 academic year.

USTFCCCA Division III Men's & Women's Cross Country Academic Team Release

2013 Worcester State MASCAC Fall All-Academic Team Honorees

2013 MASCAC Fall All-Academic Team

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