DIII Men’s Track & Field Scholar Athletes of the Year, All-Academic Individuals Announced

NEW ORLEANS – Chris Stadler of Haverford, Zach Ferrara of Brockport, Michael LeDuc of Connecticut College and Tom Postema of Defiance have been named the Scholar Athletes of the Year in Division III for the 2013 men’s track & field season by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), the association announced Monday.

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These three men’s combined academic and athletic prowess stood tallest among 232 male USTFCCCA All-Academic honorees between the indoor and outdoor seasons. The full breakdown of All-Academic selections can be found below.

Stadler, a junior sociology major with a cumulative grade point average of 3.675, earned the indoor track Scholar Athlete of the Year award with his NCAA Division III individual title at 5000 meters. This is the first time the Belmont, Mass., native has earned the award.

The indoor field Scholar Athlete of the Year award went to Ferrara, a senior kinesiology major with a cumulative 3.33 GPA who claimed the NCAA Division III indoor title in the pole vault. The Rochester, N.Y., native earns the award for the first time.

LeDuc, a junior botany major with a 3.793 cumulative GPA, adds the outdoor track Scholar Athlete of the Year award to a resume that includes perhaps the best finish of the championship season in winning the NCAA Division III steeplechase title (200 meters to go at 36:00 of this video). This is the first Scholar Athlete of the Year award for the Canton, Conn., native.

The outdoor field Scholar Athlete of the  Year is Postema, a senior accounting major with a cumulative 3.35 GPA who won the hammer throw title and finished runner-up in the discus at the Division III Outdoor Championships. Postema, a senior competing for his hometown Defiance, Ohio, program, earns Scholar Athlete of the Year distinctions for the first time in his career.

Scholar Athlete of the Year Awards are determined from among those who earned All-Academic status and placed highest in individual events at the most recent NCAA Championships. Those who earn multiple individual championship titles rank higher in the tie-breaking process, and cumulative GPA is weighed as the final tiebreaker to establish a winner. Separate awards are given to track athletes and field athletes for the indoor and outdoor seasons, resulting in four categories.

UW-La Crosse Tops All-Academic Individuals List with 16 Honorees; WIAC is the Top Conference

Including to the Scholar Athletes of the Year, a total of 232 men from 92 institutions earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors for their combined efforts in competition and in the classroom. Indoor and outdoor team champion UW-La Crosse is the best-represented school with 16 men who earned All-Academic honors, followed by Tufts with 12 and MIT and North Central (Ill.) with 10. UW-Eau Claire recorded eight.

As the only conference with multiple teams with 10 or more honorees, the WIAC led all conferences with 46 total selections. The NESCAC was next with 24 and the CCIW rounded out the top three with 20.

To qualify for the USTFCCCA All-Academic Track and Field Team, the student-athlete must have compiled a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 and have met either of the following athletic standards: a student-athlete must have competed in an NCAA Indoor or Outdoor Championship or finished the regular season ranked in the national top 35 in an individual event or ranked in the national top 25 (collective listing) in a relay event on the official NCAA POP list provided by TFRRS.org.

The full list of All-Academic selections is provided below, arranged alphabetically by team name.