DII Cross Country Scholar Athletes of the Year Stevens & Janecke Headline All-Academic Individuals

NEW ORLEANS – Not only did Tabor Stevens of Adams State defend his individual NCAA Division II Cross Country title this year, he also earned his second consecutive DII Men’s Scholar Athlete of the Year award from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Stevens was joined by DII women’s winner Jessica Janecke of Grand Valley State as this year’s recipients of the awards, which were given to the top individual male and female finishers at the NCAA Championships who earned at least a cumulative grade point average of 3.25.

The NCAA Championships were contested December 6 in Louisville, Kentucky, as part of the Division II Fall Sports Festival.

The two were among 208 men and 355 women in Division II who earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors for the 2014 cross country season.

Stevens, a senior physical geography major with a cumulative 3.41 GPA, won his second consecutive national title in Louisville this past fall with what has became a signature second-half surge. Running with the lead pack through the first half of the 10-kilometer race (shortened to 9860m due to course conditions), the Canon City, Colorado, native busted the contest wide open in the second 5k, cruising to a 17-second win over Aaron Dinzeo of California (Pa.) in 30:02.0.

The winning effort spearheaded Adams State’s third consecutive team title and its sixth in the past seven seasons, and capped a legendary individual career for Stevens that includes two national titles, a third-place finish and a sixth-place showing.

Janecke, a junior who has earned a 3.53 cumulative GPA as a double-major in biomedical sciences and allied health science, finished third at the NCAA Championships as part of a 1-2-3 individual sweep by the Grand Valley State women en route to a team title. Few athletes closed the final 780 meters of the six-kilometer race (shortened to 5780m due to course conditions) faster than Janecke’s 2:43.5, and she gained two spots over that distance as a result.

Her effort contributed to Grand Valley State’s third consecutive national title and its fourth in five years.

Stevens and Janecke were chief among 208 men and 355 women in Division II who earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors for the 2014 cross country season.

Honorees must have compiled a cumulative GPA or 3.25 or greater and must have finished among the top 30 percent of total eligible runners at his or her regional championship (total Division II teams in the region multiplied by seven runners per team) or in the top half of the field at the NCAA Championships.

The 208 men were representative of 97 institutions and 21 conferences. Topping the list of schools with six All-Academic individuals were eighth-place Sioux Falls and 28th-place Roberts Wesleyan. Five more schools each had five athletes earn the honor: Alaska Anchorage, Stonehill, Mars Hill, Saint Leo and Indiana (Pa.).

Nineteen men carried a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average through the cross country season.

Those 355 women hail from 122 different institutions and 22 conferences. Leading the nation with seven All-Academic individuals were ninth-place finisher Roberts Wesleyan, 16th-place Western State and Northern Michigan. Eight more teams were represented by six All-Academic individuals apiece: Minnesota Duluth, Adams State, Bloomsburg, Montevallo, Union (Tenn.), Indiana (Pa.), West Virginia Wesleyan and Wingate.

Forty-three women checked in with perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point averages.

At the conference level, the PSAC led all men’s conferences with 31 selections, followed by the Northeast-10 with 22. On the women’s side, the PSAC accounted for 50 honorees, followed by the NE-10 with 30 and the GLIAC with 29.

The full All-Academic individual lists for men and women are below.