Anderson & Pierson Collect Capital One Academic All-America Honors


Anderson

Pierson

Skyhawks selected to Division II Cross Country/Track & Field team by CoSIDA

2014-15 Capital One Academic All-America Men's XC/Track & Field Announcement

Stonehill College All-Time Academic All-America list

EASTON, Mass. (July 15, 2015) – Two Stonehill College student-athletes have been selected to the Capital One Academic All-America third team for women's cross country and track and field as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America committee.

Senior Emily Anderson (Manchester, Connecticut/Manchester) and junior Trisha Pierson (East Hanover, New Jersey/Hanover Park) have both earned Capital One Academic All-America honors for the first time in their careers with their selection to the third team. The duo give the women's cross country and track & field programs three Academic All-Americans all-time, joining Jill Alves '12, who earned third team honors as a senior. They also join three Skyhawks named to the men's cross country and track & field Academic All-America teams to give Stonehill a record matching five Academic All-Americans for the 2014-15 academic year and 22 Academic All-Americans all-time.

Anderson earns Academic All-America honors for the first time after being named to the Academic All-District I first team for the second straight year. She recently graduated with a 3.61 cumulative grade point average as an early childhood education major and sociology minor. She is a four-time USTFCCCA All-Academic honoree, with three in cross country and one for the 2013-14 indoor track & field season, and earned Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference honors for cross country last fall. Anderson has earned NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll status all eight semesters and Athletic Director's Honor Roll seven semesters, while collecting the Division II Athletic Director's Association (ADA) Academic Achievement Award all three years eligible. She has been inducted to the Kappa Delta Pi Education National Honor Society and Alpha Kappa Delta International Honor Society as well.

Anderson is a four-year member of both the cross country and track & field programs. She is a seven-time U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-East Region performer, collecting the honors for cross country two years, including this past fall when she finished sixth (22:08) at the NCAA Division II East Regional to help lead Stonehill to a 15th-straight trip to the NCAA Championships. She has earned All-Region honors for outdoor track three times and indoor twice, with her three outdoor awards all coming for the 1500-meter run. Anderson has collected All-New England honors four times over her career and was part of the Skyhawks 4000-meter distance medley relay team in 2014 that finished first in a school-record 11:41.79. The DMR also qualified for the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships where it finished ninth in 2014.


Pierson is one of just five Stonehill student-athletes to earn Academic All-America honors as an underclassman. (PHOTO BY SportsPix)

Anderson posted nine All-Northeast-10 performances over her career, winning three individual NE-10 track & field titles over her four years. She earned All-NE-10 honors in cross country twice over her career and was part of four straight NE-10 Championship teams. Anderson won NE-10 titles for the 1000-meter run as well as with the 4x800-meter relay at the 2014 Indoor Championships, helping lead the Skyhawks to their first ever team title. She was also part of the Skyhawks 4x800-meter relay that finished first at the 2012 Outdoor Championships. She is part of three school-record relay teams at the College.

Pierson also earns Academic All-America honors for the first time and is one of just five underclassmen out of Stonehill's 22 all-time Academic All-Americans to receive the honor after collecting Academic All-District first team honors for the second straight year. She carries a 3.99 cumulative grade point average while majoring in accounting and economics and has earned the St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, medal for having the highest cumulative grade point average on the women's track & field program the last two years. Pierson has also earned the Fred C. Petti Academic Award for having the top GPA among all Stonehill student-athletes for the 2013-14 academic year. Pierson has collected four Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference awards (two indoor, two outdoor) to date, earning the NE-10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award for the 2014-15 indoor track & field season. She has been named to the NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll and Athletic Director's Honor Roll all six semesters at the College and is a two-time Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award recipient.

Pierson is a four-time USTFCCCA All-East Region thrower for Stonehill over her three years. She has collected All-Region honors for the discus all three years to go with one indoor award for the shot put this past winter. Pierson has won the last two Northeast-10 discus championships, posting a school-record distance of 137-feet, 10-inches in winning the title for the second straight year this spring. She has also earned All-New England honors in the discus the last two years, placing fourth at the New England Championships this spring (136-08). She owns the school record for the indoor shot put (41-03.25).

The Stonehill women's cross country and track and field programs continued their run of excellence during the 2014-15 academic year. Cross country captured its sixth straight Northeast-10 championship last fall, marking the program's 13th NE-10 title, and also earning its 15th-straight trip to the NCAA Division II Championships overall. Stonehill also won its second straight NE-10 Indoor Track & Field Championship in February and finished second at the NE-10 Outdoor Track & Field Championship in May by a mere 2.5 points. Four Skyhawks earned All-America honors from the USTFCCCA, including senior Maria Curit (Biddeford, Maine/Biddeford), who earned three honors for the indoor and outdoor 800-meter run as well as part of the 4x400-meter relay team at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Alabama.

For the latest on Stonehill Athletics, follow the Skyhawks via social media on Twitter and Facebook.