Eleven Tech runners earn spots on All-ACC Academic Team

Seniors Daniel Jaskowak, Neil Gourley and Katie Kennedy are among those who made the squad by excelling in the classroom

January 30, 2018

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Eleven members of the Virginia Tech cross country teams made the Atlantic Coast Conference’s All-ACC Academic Cross Country Teams, as announced by ACC Commissioner John Swofford on Thursday morning.

To be eligible for consideration for the team, a student-athlete must have earned a 3.00 grade-point average for the previous semester and maintained a 3.00 cumulative average during his/her undergraduate academic career. Graduate students needed to maintain at least a 3.5 grade-point average for both the previous semester and for their graduate school careers.

The group includes six members of the Tech men’s team, which finished second at the ACC Championships this past fall – redshirt junior Vincent Ciattei (engineering science and mechanics), redshirt senior Neil Gourley (mechanical engineering), redshirt senior Daniel Jaskowak (human nutrition, foods and exercise), redshirt sophomore Jack Joyce (economics), junior Peter Seufer (finance), and junior Diego Zarate (criminology/psychology).

Ciattei, Gourley, Jaskowak and Seufer earned All-ACC honors this past fall after finishing in the top 21 at the league’s annual meet. Seufer and Jaskowak went on to earn All-Southeast Region honors at the NCAA Southeast Regional held outside Charlottesville, Virginia, leading Tech to a second-place finish and an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.

Five members of the Tech women’s team, which came in third at the ACC Championships for the second straight year, made the All-ACC Academic Team. The group includes senior Katie Kennedy (public relations) and sophomores Laurie Barton (human nutrition, foods and exercise), Sarah Edwards (interior design), Sara Freix (biological systems engineering), and Kayla Richardson (computer science).

Kennedy, who was the Hokies’ top finisher in all four races in which she competed, and Richardson both earned All-ACC and All-Southeast Region honors this past fall for their work on the course. Edwards earned All-Southeast Region honors as well.

Jaskowak and Kennedy made the All-ACC Academic Team for the third consecutive year. Ciattei, Joyce and Zarate earned spots for the second straight time.

Georgia Tech’s Nahom Solomon is the ACC Men’s Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while Syracuse’s Paige Stoner claimed ACC Women’s Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors. The two seniors both earned All-America honors this past fall.

To see the full All-ACC Academic Cross Country team and get all the details on this, please click here.

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