Senior Bryan Wilcox was among five Skyhawks to earn USTFCCCA individual All-Academic honors for the 2014 cross country season. |
Five Skyhawks collect individual All-Academic accolades
EASTON, Mass. (February 17, 2015) – The Stonehill College men's cross country team has earned All-Academic honors for the 2014 season from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), while five Skyhawks collected individual All-Academic accolades.
Seniors Bryan Wilcox (Plantsville, Connecticut/Southington), Trent Fontanella (Pelham, New Hampshire/Bishop Guertin), and Michael Gendron (Lowell, Massachusetts/Lowell) and sophomores Tyler Henseler (Coventry, Rhode Island/Bishop Hendricken) and Joe Santo (Newburyport, Massachusetts/Newburyport) were recognized for posting a grade point average of 3.25 or higher while also finishing among the top-30 percent of total eligible runners at the regional championship or in the top half of the field at the NCAA Championships. Stonehill's five honorees were the second highest total among all programs to be recognized.
Stonehill was among 93 men's NCAA Division II teams to earn All-Academic honors from the USTFCCCA. To qualify for this award, programs must have compiled a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and scored at their NCAA regional meet. The Skyhawks posted runner-up finishes at both the Northeast-10 Conference and East Region Championships before capping the 2014 season with their 12th consecutive appearance at the NCAA Championships. Academically, Stonehill registered a 3.16 cumulative GPA through the fall semester. Wilcox and Fontanella led the way with their selections to the NE-10 Academic All-Conference team, while Wilcox also earned his second consecutive NE-10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award.
Wilcox established himself as Stonehill's top runner in 2014, leading the Skyhawks at all three championship meets. He collected All-Conference first team accolades at the NE-10 title race after placing fifth in 27:58.3 and All-East Region honors for finishing eighth in 31:41.9 two weekends later, before turning in a time of 32:14.5, good for 81st overall, at the NCAA Fall Festival in Louisville, Kentucky to cap his collegiate career.
Wilcox is a two-time All-East Region and three-time All-NE-10 performer that competed at the NCAA DII Championships as a sophomore, junior and senior. He has been equally as impressive in the classroom, however, earning a Capital One Academic All-America honor last spring to go with his three-straight Academic All-Conference and back-to-back Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence selections for cross country. An accounting major with a 3.71 cumulative grade point average, Wilcox has been named to seven NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Rolls and six Athletic Director's Honor Rolls, while earning a DII ADA Academic Achievement Award as a sophomore in 2012.
Like Wilcox, Fontanella earned his second consecutive Academic All-Conference selection last fall and was a Capital One Academic All-American in 2013-14. Fontanella played a key role in the cross country team's success, as he earned All-NE-10 third team honors with his 15th-place finish in 28:40.9 at the NE-10 Championships, and All-East Region recognition after placing 25th in 32:29.1 at the East Region Championships, before clocking in at 32:15.0, good for 83rd overall, at the NCAA Championships.
Senior Trent Fontanella capped his collegiate career by competing in his third NCAA Championship meet in early December. |
Fontanella is a three-time All-NE-10 performer, and he competed in three NCAA Championship races during his career. The Pelham, New Hampshire native graduated following the fall semester with a 3.70 GPA and a degree in criminology and psychology. He was named to the NE-10 Commissioners Honor Roll all nine semesters at Stonehill, and to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll on seven occasions. In addition, he earned a USTFCCCA All-Academic Award in 2011 and a Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award in 2012 while serving as the Chairperson for Stonehill's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
Gendron earns USTFCCCA All-Academic recognition following a successful senior season in which he earned All-East Region honors for the first time in his career before competing in his first NCAA Championship meet. Gendron turned in an impressive third-place finish in the season-opening Shacklette Invitational, before placing 14th the following weekend at the DII/DIII Kutztown Challenge. He posted a career-best ten-kilometer time of 32:22.6 at the East Region Championships, good for 21st overall, and capped his career with a 186th-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
Gendron has been named to four NE-10 Honor Rolls and three Athletic Director's Honor Rolls while earning a 3.24 cumulative GPA as an environmental science major.
Rounding out Stonehill's All-Academic honorees for the 2014 season is the sophomore duo of Henseler and Santo. Both posted All-Conference performances at the NE-10 title race before competing in their first East Region and NCAA Championship meets.
Henseler landed on the All-NE-10 second team after placing 11th and clocking in at 28:29.4, while Santo was right behind, finishing 12th in 28:32.6 to also earn second team honors. The duo also finished back-to-back at both the East Region and NCAA Championships. Santo placed 40th and 192nd at the two meets, respectively, while Henseler posted finishes of 76th and 195th.
Through three semesters at Stonehill, Santo, a marketing major, has been named to both the NE-10 and A.D. Honor Rolls twice. Henseler has earned NE-10 Honor Roll recognition all three semesters and A.D. Honor Roll accolades twice as a history major.
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