NEW ORLEANS – Emily Manfra of the Suffolk women's indoor track & field team added to her extensive athletic resume with an All-America honor for the 2020 NCAA Division III season as announced by the U.S. Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Normal policies dictate that All-America honors are awarded to student-athletes who score any portion of a team point (top-eight in the final of an individual event or as a member of a top-eight placing relay event) at the NCAA Championships.
This season, however, was far from normal as the NCAA cancelled all sponsored championships just one day prior to the start of the 2020 NCAA DIII Indoor Track & Field Championships in Winston Salem, North Carolina due to COVID-19. In lieu of the conduction of the national championship, the USTFCCCA Executive Committee adopted the following criteria for All-America honorees:
- Based on the selected participants for the national championships initially announced by the NCAA on Sunday, March 8,the following will be recognized as All-America for the 2020 Indoor Track & Field season:
- Individual events: ALL student-athletes declared and initially accepted into their event
- Relay events: Members of ALL relays who produced the performance that was declared and initially accepted into their event
Overall, a total of 675 athletes from 161 different institutions were honored Tuesday.
Manfra is the only representative from the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) after hearing her name in the mile field after a highlight senior season. The All-America accomplishment is the second in as many seasons for the Stoneham, Massachusetts native, who became the first-ever Ram to earn the highest feat in program history a year ago in the same event.
Although every student-athlete was acknowledged for making the largest meet on a national stage, Manfra was a favorite to finish in the top eight, if not content for the individual title. The captain headed to the Tar Heel State with the second-best time in New England and fourth-best performance in DIII with a 4:54.13 clip, which she achieved Jan. 24, 2020 at Boston University's John Thomas Terrier Classic.
Throughout her final year in blue-and-gold, Manfra collected multiple honors including a pair of all-region nods, GNAC Track Runner of the Year and was GNAC Champion in two events, the 800 and mile, respectively.