SAN ANTONIO – Seven student-athletes from the University of the Incarnate Word were named to the 2020 Men's and Women's Track & Field Academic All-Conference teams, announced the Southland Conference on Tuesday.
"During this unprecedented time of 100 percent online instruction there was a lot of uncertainty, one thing I was certain of was how hard our track & field student-athletes would continue to work in the classroom," head coach
Dr. Derek Riedel said. "They adjusted on the fly and established a new way of academic success and finished at the top of their game. While I'm surprised by some of our recent conference champions being omitted from this list, I'm happy for the seven women and men who earned this great award."
"We challenged the men after the fall to improve their focus in the classroom and they accomplished that goal with their spring semester GPA of just under a 3.5. The women's team continues to standout as the class of the conference with a cumulative GPA of 3.5. It was another great school year academically."
The Cardinals had three men earn this honor:
Rodney Littlejohn,
Jordan Cherin and
Matthew Hernandez. Littlejohn and Cherin have both been previously named academic all-conference, with Littlejohn making his third appearance and Cherin making his second. Hernandez, who was the 800M champion at the Southland Indoor Championships earlier this season, makes his first appearance on the list. Littlejohn, Cherin and Hernandez completed a total of 105 community service hours this semester to contribute to the overall men's track and field hours, wo had the most hours compared to roster size at UIW.
On the women's side, four were named to the academic all-conference team:
Madi Henry,
Alisa Novosad,
Alia Henderson and Kathrin Ramirez. Henry and Novosad were two of 14 women on the academic team with a perfect 4.0 GPA.
Southland Conference Track & Field All-Academic Teams are selected by a 50-percent rule. Of the total number of nominees, half are named all-academic selections. Honorees are nominated and voted upon by head coaches, sports information directors, and academic staff members from each university.
For the full list of all-academic teams click
HERE.
UIW Honorees
Jordan Cherin | Senior | 3.96 | Computer Information Systems
Matthew Hernandez | Junior | 3.57 | Accounting
Rodney Littlejohn | Graduate | 3.93 | Kinesiology
Alia Henderson | Sophomore | 3.75 | Government
Madi Henry | Junior | 4.0 | Management
Alisa Novosad | Sophomore | 4.0 | Rehabilitative Sciences
Katherine Ramirez | R-Senior | 3.50 | Business Administration
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