•USTFCCCCA RELEASE
• 2023 NCAA DIII WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY ALL-ACADEMIC ATHLETES
• 2023 NCAA DIII MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY ALL-ACADEMIC TEAMS
NEW ORLEANS – Runners Ellie Davis, Sydney Fogg and Amy Pattelana and the Suffolk women's cross country team received acknowledgement for their combined athletic and academic excellence from the U.S. Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association. Suffolk's squad garnered the 2023 All-Academic Team Award, while the Rams – Davis, Fogg and Pattelena – each earned All-Academic Athlete status from the national organization.
Overall, 233 programs earned the honor, which has been award to squads since the 1995-96 teams that achieve a 3.1 combined GPA on a 4.0 scale, including the most recent grade period, and finish in the top-25 percent of their respective regional championship.
In the classroom, Will Feldman's Rams put together a 3.349 GPA, which is good for 202nd on the 230-plus team list. At NCAA DIII East Regionals, Suffolk cruised to a program-best sixth-place performance to meet the athletic qualification.
The distinction is the Rams seventh consecutive and seventh in program history team academic accolade, all of which have come in the Feldman era.
Suffolk is one of five Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) programs to take home the recognition as Endicott (3.73), Roger Williams (3.46), Wentworth (3.518) and University of New England (3.518) are featured on the list as well.
For a student-athlete to be considered, they must have a cumulative GPA of at least a 3.30 on a 4.0 scale and finish in the top-25 percent of their respective regional championship meet.
Nearly 400 DIII student-athletes garnered the feat with 396 honorees across 136 programs in 2023.
Pattelena, who has put together a 3.893 as an undergraduate law student, paced the seven Rams on the regional course at Franklin Park Saturday, Nov. 11 as the sophomore came through the 6k finisher's chute in personal-best 22:32.26, good for 20th in the 231-runner field. Davis was nine spots behind Pattelena with her 6k career-high time of 22:53.87 and Fogg earned a spot in the top 50 as she finished the race in 23:21.81. Academically, Fogg has compiled a 3.81 GPA, while working towards her degree in biology and Davis graduated with her Masters in Integrated Marketing in December with a 3.733 cumulative GPA.
Davis and Fogg collected their second straight honors, while Pattelena made the academic award list for the first time in her career. The threesome is the largest group of student-athletes to receive the feat the same season, surpassing the previous mark of two, which was tied by Davis and Fogg a year and set by Emily Manfra and Emma Weisse in 2018, Feldman's first season. Davis and Fogg are the second and third Rams, respectively, to have multiple USTFCCCA All-Academic Athlete nods on their resumes, joining Manfra, who owns three (2018, 2019, 2020).
Suffolk's trio made up 75 percent (3-4) of the four CCC student-athletes recognized with Hannah Shepardt of Endicott joining the Rams on the list.