East Hanover, New Jersey, graduate is Stonehill's fifth two-time selection
CoSIDA Announces Division II Academic All-America® XC/Track & Field Teams
Stonehill's All-Time Academic All-American® List
EASTON, Mass. (June 23, 2016) – Stonehill College senior thrower Trisha Pierson (East Hanover, New Jersey/Hanover Park) has been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America® women's cross country/track & field team for the second straight year, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America® committee.
Pierson, who has been voted to the CoSIDA Academic All-America® second team after earning third team honors as a junior, is just the fifth Stonehill student-athlete to become a two-time Academic-American® and only the second female student-athlete, joining women's lacrosse Hall of Famer Erin Acone '06 who earned third team At Large honors in 2005 and 2006. Stonehill's two other two-time Academic All-Americans® are former men's cross country and track & field student-athletes Trent Fontanella '15, Bryan Wilcox '15 and Nick Kirkpatrick '16.
Pierson is just the fourth Stonehill student-athlete to earn Academic All-America® honors for the women's cross country/track & field program, giving the College 25 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans® all-time. She is the 12th female student-athlete from Stonehill to earn Academic All-America® honors and joins fellow 2016 graduate Anthony Masucci (football) and rising field hockey senior Sarah Morse (women's at large) in collecting the accolades during the 2015-16 academic year.
Pierson, the first female student-athlete from Stonehill and second overall to earn Academic All-District™ honors three times, recently graduated with a 3.97 cumulative grade point average as an accounting and economics dual major enrolled in the College's Moreau Honors program. She was a finalist for the 2016 Northeast-10 Conference Female Student-Athlete of the Year award after receiving Stonehill's Edward E. Martin Female Scholar-Athlete Award this spring. Pierson, who earned a perfect 4.0 semester GPA in five of her eight semesters, earned the St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, medal for having the highest cumulative GPA on the women's track & field team each of the last three years and is also a three-time recipient of the Fred C. Petti Academic Award for having the highest yearly GPA among all of Stonehill's female student-athletes.
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. She 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.
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 won the last three Northeast-10 discus championships and currently holds the school record in the event with a distance of 137-feet, 10-inches, at the 2015 NE-10 Championships. 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).
Stonehill capped the outdoor track & field season having captured its second NE-10 Outdoor Championship in program history, qualifying two student-athletes to the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships in Bradenton, Florida, and posting an eighth place team finish at the New England Outdoor Championships. Junior Nicole Borofski (Plymouth, Massachusetts/Plymouth North) collected outdoor All-America honors for the second straight year with her program-best third place finish in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The Skyhawks also claimed a third straight NE-10 Indoor Championship in February, with six student-athletes qualifying for the NCAA Championships, bringing home a pair of All-America honors.
With 20 intercollegiate sports, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. While finishing in the top three of the Northeast-10 Conference Presidents' Cup standings for overall athletic performance 12 straight years, 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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