Five of six student-athletes repeat from winter Academic All-Conference teams
NE10 Announces Spring Academic All-Conference Teams
Demeule |
Vercollone |
Fernandes |
Perry |
Lastra |
Hartman |
EASTON, Mass. (June 17, 2019) – Stonehill College has placed six of its spring student-athletes on the Northeast-10 Conference Academic All-Conference teams for their performances on the field of play as well as the classroom, the league announced Monday.
Merrimack College and Le Moyne College led the way with 14 student-athletes each on the Academic All-Conference teams. Adelphi University was next with 13 and Southern New Hampshire University followed with 12 student-athletes honored.
Among the Skyhawks' six include men's track & field seniors Alex Demeule andStephen Vercollone, women's track & field seniors Krista Fernandes, Colleen Perry, and junior Anna Lastra, and softball sophomore Genna Hartman.
To be eligible for selection to the NE10 Academic All-Conference Teams a student-athlete must have met or exceeded the following minimum requirements: participated in at least half of the team's competitions and been either a starter or significant contributor, achieved a 3.30 cumulative grade point average, and completed at least one academic year at his/her institution.
Demeule earns NE10 Academic All-Conference honors for the eighth time in his Stonehill career across the cross country and indoor and outdoor track & field seasons, having recently graduated from Stonehill with a Bachelor's Degree in finance with a 3.79 grade point average. He is a three-time NE10 All-Conference selection for outdoor track, having also earned Google Cloud Academic All-District® honors for the third-straight year, while earning Google Cloud Academic All-America® third team honors as a junior. Demeule was recently named the NE10 Man of the Year and was also a finalist for the Conference's Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year award after receiving Stonehill's Edward E. Martin Male Senior Scholar-Athlete Award. He is a three-time recipient of the College's St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, Medal for having the highest cumulative GPA on the men's cross country and track & field teams.
Demeule received the NE10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award following the 2018 men's cross country season, is a four-time All-Academic honoree by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), and has earned NE10 Academic Honor Roll and Athletic Director's Honor Roll status every semester. He has been inducted to the Lambda Epsilon Sigma and Beta Gamma Sigma honor societies, is a member of the Financial Management Association and was named the finance department Student of the Year. He served as portfolio manager with Stonehill's Investment Finance Initiative (SCIFI), a yearlong, comprehensive, academic and professional development course of study charged with the management of the Mary Herlihy Opportunity Fund at the College.
Demeule is a five-time NCAA Championships participant over his career, competing at three NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships and making two appearances at the NCAA II Indoor Track & Field Championships as a member of the 4000-meter distance medley relay, earning All-America honors as a junior when the relay finished fifth in a then school-record 9:49.12, running the opening 1200-meter leg. He has been a key member of a Stonehill cross country program that has won the last two NCAA East Regional Championships as well as the 2017 NE10 title. Demeule is a four-time USTFCCCA All-East Region performer over his career, earning All-New England status five times, and a five-time All-NE10 performer, collecting first team honors in cross country as a junior and senior.
Vercollone, who graduated from Stonehill with a Bachelor's Degree after double majoring in graphic design and marketing and a 3.53 GPA, earns NE10 Academic All-Conference honors for the second time with his first outdoor track & field selection. He was voted to the Google Cloud Academic All-District® I first team for the first time this spring and is a two-time USTFCCCA All-Academic honoree who has been named to the NE10 Academic Honor Roll every semester and Athletic Director's Honor Roll multiple semesters. Vercollone was an Athletic Director's Award recipient at Stonehill's end of the year Award's Night.
Vercollone, who is also a four-year member of Stonehill's men's soccer program, is a three-time NCAA Championships participant with the track & field program. He is a two-time All-American after finishing seventh in the 800-meter run at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Kingsville, Texas, last month, while running the 800-meter leg for the Skyhawks 4000-meter distance medley relay that finished fifth at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in a then-record 9:49.12. Vercollone is still a member of Stonehill's school-record DMR that posted a time of 9:47.24 at Boston University to qualify for this year's NCAA Championships and holds the indoor (1:51.19) and outdoor (1:52.48) 800-meter school records. Vercollone is a nine-time All-New England performer, a seven-time USTFCCCA All-East Region and six-time All-NE10 honoree over the course of his career. He won the 800-meter run at the 2019 NE10 Indoor Championships and was part of the NE10 Champion 4x800-meter relay at the 2019 NE10 Outdoor Championships. He finished second at the New England Outdoor Championships for the 800-meter run and won New England titles during the winter with the indoor 4x800 and DMR.
Fernandes and her two teammates were part of the Stonehill women's track and field program that won its fourth-straight NE10 Outdoor Championship and fifth in program history, as they came from behind to defeat Assumption College on day two of the Championship. The women's program has now won 12-straight championships, from cross country, indoor & outdoor track and field seasons and over the past 18 championships, the Stonehill women have won 17.
Fernandes tallied her fifth Academic All-Conference honor, with two from the indoor season and now her third-straight from the outdoor season, as she graduated with a degree in psychology earning a 3.81 grade-point average. During the outdoor season, Fernandes earned two NE10 All-Conference honors at the 2019 NE10 Outdoor Championship with one being from the 400-meter hurdles and one with the 4x400-meter relay team to bring her career total to 10. With these two honors, the Taunton, Massachusetts native was tabbed on the USTFCCCA All-East Region team in both of the events bringing her career total to 11.
At the end of April, Fernandes was named the Stonehill Edward E. Martin Female Senior Scholar-Athlete Award. She is also a two-time NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championship participant and a three-time qualifier in the 4000-meter distance medley relay. Most recently, the 2019 graduate was named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District® first team, to make it twice in her career as she has also received the Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award and the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team award twice in her four years. Capping off her career, Fernandes was a finalist for the NE10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. Fernandes is also a member of Stonehill College's Lambda Epsilon Sigma and Psi Chi Honor Societies.
Perry picks up her second NE10 Academic All-Conference honor, as she was named to the winter team, and she graduated with a degree in elementary education and American studies earning a 3.74 GPA. Perry finished fourth at the NE10 Outdoor Championships in the heptathlon and then finished ninth at the New England Championships this season. This winter she earned her first Academic All-Conference accolade after earning her second NE10 All-Conference honor by finishing second in the pentathlon at the NE10 Indoor Championships in February. With her second place finish at the NE10 Championships, the senior also broke her own school record totaling 3,143 points. With her 4,113 points she totaled at the NE10 Outdoor Championships, Perry also holds the school record in the heptathlon. Throughout her career, she has also been named to the NE10 Academic and Athletic Director's Honor Rolls, received three USTFCCCA All-East Region honors, and two Division II ADA Academic Achievement Awards.
Lastra, with her 3.83 grade point average in the classroom as she studies health science, collects her fifth Academic All-Conference honor. At the NE10 Outdoor Championships, she earned her 11th and 12th All-Conference honors with her third-place finish in the 1500-meter run and assisted the 4x800-meter relay team to the program's seventh title in 10 years. She also competed in the 800-meter run, to finish fourth. During the indoor season, Lastra was part of the first place 4000-meter distance medley and 4x800-meter relay teams and she was the runner-up in the mile run. This was her third year assisting the DMR to a provisional time making the performance list for the NCAA Division II Indoor performance list. She has combined for four All-New England honors, and 13 NCAA Division II All-East Region team recognitions. The Bridgton, Maine native earned the St. Thomas Aquinas Medal, Patron Saint of Students, this year for having the highest cumulative GPA on the women's cross country team. She has been named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team five times and earned the Division II ADA Academic Achievement Award, while also being named to the NE10 Academic Honor Roll and the Athletic Director's Honor Roll multiple times.
Hartman, earning her first NE10 Academic All-Conference award, has accumulated a 3.78 grade-point average in her two years in the Purple & White while studying elementary education and psychology with a minor in speech pathology. Hartman is the first Academic All-Conference selection since the softball team had three selections in 2016. This season she was named to the NE10 All-Conference second team as a designated hitter for the Skyhawks as she held a .287 batting average to rank second on the team. She saw career highs in nine categories offensively, as she also threw 19.2 inning in the circle. The sophomore tallied five doubles, one homerun, scoring 11 runs combining for 16 RBI. Her 16 RBI was tied for first on the team. She was ranked in the top 50 of the NE10 in three categories, including 39th in RBI, 44th in batting average, and 49th in on base percentage. The East Granby, Connecticut native has also been named to the NE10 Academic Honor Roll with Academic Distinction and the Athletic Director's Honor Roll all four semesters.
With 21 intercollegiate sports, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. Stonehill has won the Northeast-10 Conference Presidents' Cup five times, all coming within the last 14 years. The Skyhawks have received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first eight 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, which considers the academic success rate of the institution based on the graduation rate of student-athletes, good for seventh among all NCAA Division II institutions, with eight Skyhawk teams receiving a perfect rating of 100%. In addition, the Skyhawks are ranked 11th 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.
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