2020 CoSIDA Academic All-District Women's Track & Field/Cross Country
BOSTON – For the second straight year Suffolk women's cross country and track & field's Emily Manfra was acknowledged for her efforts on the course and in the classroom as the senior was dubbed CoSIDA Academic All-District as selected by the College of Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA).
The 2019-20 CoSIDA Academic All-District Women's Track & Field/Cross Country Team recognized the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performance in the athletic realm and in the classroom.
Manfra is one of 11 NCAA Division III competitors in the New England region honored for combined excellence academically and athletically with first-team District 1, which is comprised of Massachusetts and Maine, honors. The Biology major is one of two Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) runners to earn the honor alongside Colby Sawyer's Alison Fairbain, who represented the league in District 2, that spans eight different states including Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia and Washington D.C.
First-team Academic All-District honorees advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-American distinctions will be selected later this month.
Manfra, who was the first member of Suffolk's cross country/track & field program to earn the feat, is the third student-athlete to earn the recognition twice joining the likes of baseball's Matt Batchelder (2004, 2005) and Jake Cintolo (2013, 2014).
The Stoneham, Massachusetts, native's senior season was cut short due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Prior to that though, she continued to have a record-setting career.
In the fall she competed at the NCAA Championships for the second time in as many years after earning a pair of all-region honors and capturing the GNAC Championship to be named GNAC Runner of the Year.
This winter she won a pair of GNAC titles at the conference's inaugural indoor track & field championships where the Rams finished as runner ups. The long-distance runner went on to grab two all-region nods in the mile and was one day away from competing at the same event at nationals. NCAAs were cut short with the cancelation of the season, however, Manfra still garnered All-America status after putting together the fourth-best mile time in the country across the 2019-20 campaign.
Academically, Manfra is just as impressive. She achieved near perfection in each of her eight semesters at Suffolk with the biology major posting a 3.99 grade point average in her four years on Beacon Hill. She is a three-time U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) academics awards and two GNAC All-Academic Team honors.