Alves, Ferrarini and McBride all honored for their combined performances in competition and the classroom

Jill Alves

Maura Ferrarini

Caroline McBride

EASTON, Mass. (June 5, 2012) – Three members of the Stonehill College women's cross country and track & field teams have been named to the Capital One Academic All-District I Women's Track/Cross Country Team as selected by the NCAA Division II College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) members from the East Region. Seniors Jill Alves (Whitman, Mass./Whitman-Hanson) and Maura Ferrarini (Springfield, Mass./Cathedral) have earned their second-career selections to an All-District Team while junior Caroline McBride (North Reading, Mass./North Reading) collects her first-career honors.

All three student-athletes will now advance to the Capital One Academic All-America Team ballot where first, second and third team All-America honorees will be selected later this month.

Since 2002-03, the Skyhawks have had five student-athletes recognized at the All-District level including Alves and Ferrarini's second team accolades last season. Along with Alves and Ferrarini, junior Erin Carmone (Riverside, R.I./East Providence) received a first team selection in 2010-11 while All-American Dana DeIngenis' '07 (Cranston, R.I.) earned second team honors in 2006-07 and Dianna Chivakos' '05 (South Hamilton, Mass.) was named to the second team in 2004-05.

Alves, the two-time Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10) defending champion in the 1,000-meter run (indoor), boasts a 3.46 cumulative grade point average as a psychology major at the College. During the cross country season, Alves earned NE-10 Academic All-Conference accolades and USTFCCCA All-Academic honors. Alves ran a season-best time of 18:34.85 (5-kilometers) at the conference championships to place 15^th overall and earn a spot on the NE-10 All-Conference third team.

A USTFCCCA All-East Region selection four times in cross country, Alves is also a member of three school record relay performances including the distance medley (indoor), 4x400-meter and 4x800-meter relays (both outdoor). Alves holds one individual school record in the 1,000-meter run which she set on February 27, 2010 at the New England Championships with a time of 2:56.24. Alves finished eighth overall to earn All-New England honors with her performance.

Alves has been a consistent member of both the NE-10 Commissioner's and Athletic Director's Honor Rolls at Stonehill over her four-year career, was named the NE-10 Rookie of the Year in cross country in 2008 and has appeared on a NE-10 All-Conference team in every season (cross country).

Ferrarini compiled the highest cumulative grade point average out of all three honorees with a 3.77 GPA while majoring in chemistry. Ferrarini earned the NE-10 Sport Excellence Award this past season in cross country after running a career-best time of 18:12.58 (5-kilometers) for third place overall and a spot on the NE-10 All-Conference first team. Ferrarini backed up that performance with another career-best effort at the NCAA Division II East Regionals running a time of 23:12.0 on the six-kilometer layout for eighth place overall.

During the track & field season, Ferrarini provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships (indoor) in the mile run posting a time of 4:59.12 to finish 13^th overall at the New England Championships. Ferrarini also joined Alves and teammates Maria Curit (Biddeford, Maine/Biddeford) and Sarah Wilson (West Suffield, Conn./Suffield) on the school record and NCAA provisionally qualifying distance medley relay team at the Boston University (BU) Valentine Invitational. The quartet ran a time of 12:03.47 to rank eighth overall out of 29 teams.

McBride, who earns her first-career All-District selection, put together the second highest cumulative grade point average on the team with a 3.51 GPA as an American History major while minoring in journalism. In the cross country season, McBride earned NE-10 All-Conference third team honors by finishing 20^th overall at the conference championships.

McBride shined in both track & field seasons placing second overall in the 10,000-meter run at the indoor conference championships while also earning USTFCCCA All-East Region honors in the 5,000-meter run. In the outdoor season, McBride successfully defended her title in the 10,000-meter run with a meet record time of 38:29.88. McBride also earned All-New England honors in the 10,000-meter run with a second place finish in 37:31.77, a school record performance.

All three runners were instrumental for the Skyhawks in earning their third-straight NE-10 Championship and third-straight NCAA Division II East-Regional title in cross country. Stonehill also went on to finish second overall at the NE-10 Indoor Championships and third in the outdoor conference championships due in large part to Alves, Ferrarini and McBride's contributions.

CoSIDA, which began its recognition of NCAA scholar-athletes in the 1950's, has honored more than 15,000 deserving athletes across all divisions in 12 sports. To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.