NEW HAVEN, Conn. (May 27, 2016) – Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Commissioner Dan Mara on Thursday announced that a record 192 student-athletes were named to the Spring 2016 CACC All-Academic Team for the league’s seven spring championship sports (men's golf, men's tennis, softball, men's & women's track & field, women's lacrosse and baseball). The new total breaks the old mark of 155, which was set each of the last two years (2014 & 2015).
Softball led the championship sports with 61 honorees, while baseball followed with 32 (a +12 increase from 2015). Women's lacrosse was next with 30 honorees, while women's track & field was not too far off with 27. Men's track & field added 20 honorees, while men's tennis (14) and men's golf (8) rounded out the list. Seventy-nine (79) of the honorees are multiple time award winners, including 25 who are three-time honorees.
In order to be named to the CACC Spring All-Academic Team, recipients must have participated in a CACC Championship sport in the spring. They must be at least a sophomore academically and athletically, have been a student-athlete at their current school for at least two semesters, and achieve a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher through the fall semester of 2015.
Twenty-four (24) student-athletes on the All-Academic Team achieved GPAs of 3.90 or higher, including five posting a perfect 4.0 mark: John Gibbons (Post University men's golf); Hunter Leckonby (Chestnut Hill College women's lacrosse); Danielle Rodriguez (Nyack College women's lacrosse); Lorenzo Montegiorgi (Concordia College men's tennis); and Taurai Augustin (Holy Family University men's track & field).
Four academic award winners on the list garnered major year-end awards in their respective sport, including Philadelphia University's Liz Mower (CACC Women's Lacrosse Player of the Year), Caldwell University's Marisa Monasseri (CACC Softball Player of the Year), Post's Samantha Esque (CACC Softball Pitcher of the Year) and Concordia's Rafael Ferreira (CACC Men's Tennis Player of the Year).
Also, eight track & field standouts who combined to win 11 conference titles in various events at the league championship meet made the academic list and included Georgian Court University's Jordan Fagan (triple jump), Georgian Court's Patrick Parr (3,000-meter steeplechase), Augustin (800), Caldwell's Christina Campos (4x100-meter relay), Georgian Court's Malawi Allen (high jump), Georgian Court's Jamie Hand (3,000-meter steeplechase & 4x400-meter relay), GCU's Jessica Handsaker (800, 1,500 & 4x400 relay) and PhilaU's Emilie Barton (10,000).
Forty-four (44) student-athletes overall were named to both the All-Academic team and the All-CACC team in their respective sport this spring
The Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference is an NCAA Division II Conference composed of 14 institutions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The member institutions are Bloomfield College, Caldwell University, Chestnut Hill College, Concordia (N.Y.) College, Dominican (N.Y.) College, Felician College, Georgian Court University, Goldey-Beacom College, Holy Family University, Nyack College, Philadelphia University, Post University of Waterbury, University of the Sciences, and Wilmington University.
