Senior Trisha Pierson is the first Stonehill female student-athlete to ever earn Academic All-District honors three years. |
Buonfiglio, Carberry, and Pierson recognized for academic and athletic excellence
2016 CoSIDA Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-District Teams
Stonehill's all-time CoSIDA Academic All-District List
EASTON, Mass. (May 26, 2016) – Three members of the Stonehill College women's track & field and cross country teams have earned CoSIDA Academic All-District™ honors, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Seniors Trisha Pierson (East Hanover, New Jersey/Hanover Park), Erin Carberry (Milton, Massachusetts/Thayer Academy), and junior Alexandra Buonfiglio (Lynnfield, Massachusetts/Lynnfield) were selected to the Division II Academic All-District I cross country/track & field first team, which is comprised of institutions from the Northeast-10 Conference, East Coast Conference, and the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. With their selections to the All-District team, Pierson, Carberry, and Buonfiglio are now eligible for the CoSIDA Academic All-America ballot which will be released in June.
Pierson becomes the first female in Stonehill College history to earn three Academic All-District first team accolades, joining Bryan Wilcox 15' of the men's cross country/track & field team as the only two collegiate athletes to achieve the feat. As a junior, Pierson collected Capital One Academic All-America third team honors for the first time, becoming the third member of the women's cross country and track & field programs to receive the honor. Pierson carries a 3.97 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 three years. She 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 was awarded the Economics Departmental Award for being the top ranking senior in the major and the Edmond N. Moriarty, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Recipient for being the top ranking business major at the College and is also a member of Beta Alpha Psi, Beta Gamma Sigma, Omicron Delta Epsilon and Lambda Epsilon Sigma national honor societies.
Pierson has collected five Northeast-10 Academic All-Conference awards (three 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 eight semesters at the College and is a four-time Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award recipient.
Buonfiglio |
Carberry |
Pierson |
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Pierson is a seven-time USTFCCCA All-East Region thrower for Stonehill over her four year career. She has collected All-Region honors for the discus all four years, while also earning an All-Region nod in the shot put this spring for the first time. During the indoor season, Pierson has collected two All-Region awards in the shot put, with the latest coming this past winter. Pierson has won the last three Northeast-10 discus championships and currently holds the school record in the event. She has also earned All-New England honors twice in the discus, and owns the school record for the indoor shot put (41-05.75) and the outdoor shot put (42-01.50).
Carberry earns Academic All-District honors for the first time in her career after recently graduating with a 3.45 cumulative grade point average as an Elementary Education and International Studies double major at the College. She has been named to seven NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Rolls and five Athletic Director's Honor Rolls.
Carberry is a three time USTFCCCA All-East Region performer, including a selection in the 800-meter run during the outdoor season. She was part of the Skyhawks All-Region 4000-meter distance medley relay that won the event at the New England Indoor Championships in February with a program record time of 11:35.05. She also collected All-Region honors for the 800-meter run with a personal-best time of 2:16.67 to finish fifth at the Holy Cross Invitational. She earned All-Region honors once over her career during the outdoor season and twice for indoor track.
Carberry has collected All-New England honors twice times over her career, including her distance medley relay performance this winter, and All-Northeast-10 accolades three times, including NE-10 Championship performances in the 800-meter run and with the Skyhawks 4x800 at this year's NE-10 Indoor Championships (9:40.58). Carberry earned All-American status in March when the distance medley relay finished in sixth place at the NCAA Championship with a school record time of 11:35.05.
Buonfiglio rounds out Stonehill's Academic All-District selections with the first nod of her career. The junior has posted a 3.47 cumulative GPA as a History/Education double major, and has been named to both the NE-10 and Athletic Director's Honor Rolls for five semesters. She is also a Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award winner.
Senior Erin Carberry is an Academic All-District honoree for the first time. |
Buonfiglio registered the first All-East Region performance of her career during the indoor track & field season, as her time of 5:02.86 in the mile at the John Thomas Terrier Invitational on January 29th was good enough for top-5 in the region. She has also earned three All-NE-10 accolades over the course of her track & field career at Stonehill, including back-to-back championships in the 1000-meter run at the NE-10 Indoor Championships.
Buonfiglio played an important role in Stonehill's seventh consecutive NE-10 championship and East Region cross country championship last fall. The junior ran to a seventh place finish at the NE-10 Championships with a time of 22:47.5, earning first team All-Conference recognition for the first time in her career. She then earned All-Region honors for the second time in her career when she crossed the finish line in 17th place, clocking in at 22:17.13. Buonfiglio closed out her season at the NCAA Championships, finishing in 117th with a time of 22:21.9.
The Stonehill women's cross country and track and field programs continued their run of excellence during the 2015-16 academic year. The Skyhawk women swept the Northeast-10 Conference Championships in cross country, indoor, and outdoor track and field for the second time in the college's history. Stonehill captured its seventh consecutive NE-10 Cross Country Championship last October, before claiming its third consecutive Indoor Track & Field Title, and the second Outdoor Track & Field Title in program history in February and May, respectively. Four Skyhawks earned All-America honors from the USTFCCCA, including juniors Nicole Borofski (Plymouth, Massachusetts/Plymouth North) and Aisha McAdams (North Kingston, Rhode Island/North Kingston), who will wrap up Stonehill's outdoor campaign this weekend at the NCAA Championships in Bradenton, Florida.
With 20 intercollegiate sports, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. In addition to winning its fifth Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup following the 2014-15 academic year, the Skyhawks have received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first five years of the program's existence of honoring institutions with an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90-percent or better. Stonehill has earned a 96% Academic Success Ranking (ASR) by the NCAA two straight years, which considers the academic success rate of the institution based on the graduation rate of student-athletes, good for fifth among all NCAA Division II institutions, with 12 Skyhawk teams receiving a perfect rating of 100%. In addition, the Skyhawks are ranked third in the National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) Power Rankings for Division II used to assess the academic and athletic standards of all NCAA and NAIA athletic programs. Stonehill has also been selected as the host of the 2016 NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championships at W.B. Mason Stadium.
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