DII Track & Field Scholar Teams of the Year & All-Academic Teams Announced

NEW ORLEANS – Scholar Team of the Year and All-Academic Team honors for the 2014-15 NCAA Division II Track & Field season were announced Friday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Not only did the Central Missouri women sweep the NCAA team titles both indoors and outdoors, the Jennies also earned Scholar Team of the Year for both seasons.

The Findlay men also delivered a sweep of the Scholar Team awards with a pair of runner-up national team finishes.

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As the highest-placing teams with at least a 3.00 cumulative team grade point average at this season’s indoor and/or outdoor NCAA Division II Championships, these teams stood out among 115 women’s teams and 62 men’s programs that combined academic and athletic achievement to earn All-Academic Team honors this season.

The full list of All-Academic teams can be found below.

Led by a pair of Scholar Athletes of the Year in Erika Kinsey and Brittany Kallenberger, the Jennies posted a cumulative team GPA of 3.49 en route to their first two national titles in program history with an indoor/outdoor national sweep.

Indoors, Kinsey won a pair of national titles and scored total 25 points as UCM claimed the team title with 47 points to defeat runner-up Hillsdale by seven points. Outdoors, the Jennies got national titles from both Kinsey and Kallenberger to score 59 points and edge 2014 national champion Lincoln (Mo.) by nine points.

UCM, which had 12 women earn All-Academic Individual honors, was the first women’s team to sweep the NCAA DII Scholar Team of the Year honors since Grand Valley State did so in both 2011 and 2012.

Findlay’s men posted a cumulative team GPA of 3.08 during a 2014-15 campaign that saw the Oilers finish tied for second place with Grand Valley State at the NCAA Indoor Championships and an outright second place at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Findlay edged out GVSU for the indoor Scholar Team honor, 3.08 to 3.03.

The Oilers came within five points of the indoor national team title with 40 points, and came even closer to the outdoor title with a 50-point effort to fall just short of the 53 posted by champ Saint Augustine’s.

Four Oilers earned All-Academic individual honors, including two-time shot put national runner-up Taylor Miller.

Findlay becomes the second GLIAC team in as many years to sweep the indoor/outdoor men’s Scholar Team of the Year award, following in the footsteps of rival Ashland from a year ago.

All Academic Teams

Sioux Falls Men, Maryville (Mo.) Women Post Top Team GPAs

The USTFCCCA also announced Friday the 2015 Division II All-Academic Track & Field teams. A total of 115 women’s teams and 62 men’s teams earned the distinction as a result of earning a cumulative team GPA of 3.00 or higher.

With a cumulative team GPA of 3.74, the women of Maryville (Mo.) tied with NCAA DI Lipscomb for the highest GPA in the nation, regardless of division or gender.

They were followed at the DII level by Johnson C. Smith, Drury, Cedarville and Michigan Tech.

Sioux Falls was the top men’s team in DII this academic year with a 3.55 team GPA, ahead Bentley at 3.43 and Philadelphia at 3.37.

Thirteen different programs from the NSIC earned All-Academic Team nods on the women’s side to lead all conferences, just ahead of the GLIAC with 12, and the Northeast-10 and PSAC with 11 each.

The GLIAC emerged on top for the men with eight of its member institutions claiming the award, followed by seven from the NSIC and six from the Northeast-10.

The full list of All-Academic Teams is listed below in alphabetical order by team.