Senior Bryan Wilcox is the first Stonehill student-athlete to ever earn Academic All-District honors three years. (PHOTO BY Jim Stankiewicz) |
Wilcox becomes program's first three-time All-District honoree
Stonehill All-Time Capital One Academic All-District honorees
EASTON, Mass. (June 18, 2015) – Four members of the Stonehill College men's cross country and track & field programs have earned a spot on the Capital One Academic All-District I first team as selected by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) members from the East Region.
Senior Bryan Wilcox (Plantsville, Connecticut/Southington) leads the list for Stonehill by becoming the first three-time Academic All-District selection ever at the College. He, as well as the remaining three Academic All-District selections are now eligible for Capital One Academic All-America selection by CoSIDA's Academic All-America committee to be announced later this month. Senior Trent Fontanella (Pelham, New Hampshire/Bishop Guertin) and junior All-American Nick Kirkpatrick (Carmel, Indiana/Brebeuf Jesuit Prep) join Wilcox on the Academic All-District first team for the second straight year, while senior Robert Smith (Woburn, Massachusetts/Woburn Memorial) earns Academic All-District honors for the first time.
It marks the third straight year Stonehill has placed multiple student-athletes on the Capital One Academic All-District men's cross country and track & field first team. The four selections is the second-highest single season total in program history after the Skyhawks had five selections last year which resulted in a program-record four Academic All-America honorees.
Wilcox, who earned Academic All-America third team honors as a junior, collects Academic All-District first team accolades for the third straight year – the first in Stonehill history to do so. He recently graduated with a 3.71 cumulative grade point average as an accounting major at the College. Wilcox is a six time Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference selection, earning three NE-10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Awards over his career. He was a finalist for the NE-10 Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year and earned Stonehill's Edward E. Martin Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year award at the College's Senior Awards Banquet. Wilcox has collected Academic All-Conference honors for cross country three times, earning the sport's NE-10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. He has been named to the Academic All-Conference team for outdoor track & field twice (2013 & 2014) and indoor track once (2015), receiving his third Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence for indoor track this past winter.
Wilcox |
Fontanella |
Kirkpatrick |
Smith |
Wilcox has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll all eight semesters at the College and the Athletic Director's Honor Roll six semesters, while earning the Division II Athletic Director's Association (ADA) Academic Achievement Award each of his last three years for having a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or better. He is a five time U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-East Region performer with the cross country and track & field programs, collecting the honors for cross country, the indoor 5000-meters and outdoor 10,000-meters this year. The five time New England Championships qualifier has earned All-New England honors four times, including the 5000-meters with an eighth place finish (14:50.31) at the indoor championships in February, and 10,000-meters with a third place effort (30:58.99) at the outdoor championships this spring.
Wilcox finished eighth at the NCAA Division II East Regional to help lead Stonehill to a second place team finish that clinched the program's 12th-straight trip to the NCAA Championships in Louisville, Kentucky. He also turned in a fifth place finish at the Northeast-10 Championship as the Skyhawks were second as a team. Wilcox is an All-Northeast-10 performer in cross country each of the last three seasons, helping Stonehill to a pair of NE-10 titles in 2012 and 2013. He won the 2013 NE-10 10,000-meter championship at the Outdoor Championships with a time of 32:08.09 to also collect All-Northeast-10 honors.
Fontanella, who was also named to the Academic All-America third team last year, earns Academic All-District honors for the second straight year for his efforts in helping lead the cross country program to a 12th-straight trip to the NCAA Championships before graduating in December. The criminology and psychology double-major achieved a 3.70 cumulative grade point average at the College. Fontanella earned the College's Edward E. Martin Male Scholar-Athlete Award in 2014 and is a six time Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference selection, earning two awards each for cross country (2013 & 2014) as well as indoor (2013 & 2014) and outdoor track & field (2013 & 2014). He was named to the NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll all eight semesters and Athletic Director's Honor Roll seven semesters and a member of both the Edwin H. Sutherland and Psi Chi Honor Societies. Fontanella is a three-time Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award recipient and served on Stonehill's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) as its Chairperson.
Senior Trent Fontanella earns Academic All-District honors for the second straight year. (PHOTO BY Kody Kahle) |
Fontanella is a three-time USTFCCCA All-East Region performer at Stonehill, collecting the honors for cross country last fall with a 25th place finish at the East Regional (32:29.1) after helping the Skyhawks to a second place team finish at the NE-10 Championships with a 15th place finish (28:40.8) to earn All-NE-10 honors. He also collected All-Region honors for the 3000-meter run during the 2013-14 indoor track season and 5000-meter run last spring for the outdoor season. The four-time New England Championships qualifier earned four All-Northeast-10 awards over his career as a three-time All-NE-10 performer for cross country to go with a second place finish at the 2014 NE-10 Indoor Track & Field Championships in the 3000-meter run (8:37.76).
Kirkpatrick, an Academic All-America third team selection as a sophomore, earns Academic All-District honors for the second straight year. He has earned a 3.70 cumulative grade point average as an electrical engineering major at the College. Kirkpatrick is a two-time All-American with Stonehill's 4000-meter distance medley relay, running the 1200-meter lead leg for the team that turned in a program-best third place finish in 9:50.82 in Birmingham, Alabama, in March – less than a second off the school-record time. He also earned All-America honors as part of the Skyhawks DMR in 2013 which finished seventh at the NCAA Indoor Championships (9:58.33).
Kirkpatrick has earned Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference honors for indoor track & field each of the last two seasons and has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's and Athletic Director's Honor Roll all six semesters at the College to date. Kirkpatrick earned the St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, Medal at the annual Academic Excellence Recognition Breakfast for having the highest cumulative GPA for both the men's cross country and track & field programs for the second straight year this spring.
Kirkpatrick is a five time USTFCCCA All-East Region performer over his career at Stonehill, collecting the honors as part of the DMR and indoor and outdoor 800-meter run this season. He provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships for the 800-meters, posting a personal-best indoor time of 1:55.25 at the University of Rhode Island Coaches' Tribute meet with his first place finish in February and then clocked a personal best 1:52.32 in a tenth place showing at the New England Outdoor Championships in May. He is also part of Stonehill's school-record 4x800-meter relay team that finished second at the New England Outdoor Championships in 7:33.66.
Senior Robert Smith is an Academic All-District honoree for the first time. |
Kirkpatrick has earned five All-New England awards over his three-year career at Stonehill adding indoor honors with the 4x800-meter relay and DMR in February to his outdoor 4x800 award. He has collected All-Northeast-10 honors four times in his career, winning the NE-10 indoor 1000-meter run in 2:28.32 in February.
Smith rounds out Stonehill's Academic All-District honors with the first selection of his career after recently graduating with a 3.51 cumulative grade point average as a criminology major at the College. He has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll all eight semesters at the College and the Athletic Director's Honor Roll seven semesters. Smith has also been a member of the College's LifeSkills Committee.
Smith is a six time USTFCCCA All-East Region performer, including a pair of honors to lead Stonehill during the outdoor season. He was part of the Skyhawks All-Region 4x400-meter relay that earned All-New England honors at the New England Outdoor Championships in May with an eighth place finish in 3:19.02. He also collected All-Region honors for the 400-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 55.08-seconds to finish third at the Northeast-10 Outdoor Championships. He earned All-Region honors four times over his career during the outdoor season and twice for indoor track.
Smith has collected All-New England honors three times over his career, including his 4x400-meter performance this spring, and All-Northeast-10 accolades twice, including an NE-10 Championship performance with the Skyhawks 4x400 at the 2014 NE-10 Indoor Championships (3:24.15). He is also part of Stonehill's school-record 4x400 relay team that finished in 3:15.22 at the 2014 New England Outdoor Championships, and owner of the indoor mark of 3:18.08 at the 2014 New England Indoor Championships. Smith competed in eight individual events over the course of his career, including the 60-meter dash, 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash, 500-meter dash, 400-meter hurdles, long jump and triple jump.
The Stonehill men's cross country and track and field programs continued their run of excellence during the 2014-15 academic year. Cross country reached the NCAA Division II Championships for the 12th-straight year after finishing second as a team at the Northeast-10 Conference Championship and NCAA East Regional. Track and field finished third at the NE-10 Indoor Championships and had its 4000-meter distance medley relay team earn All-American honors for the second straight year and seventh time over the last nine seasons with a program-best third place finish in Birmingham, Alabama. The Skyhawks placed fourth at the NE-10 Outdoor Track & Field Championships this spring.
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