K-State Track and Field Earns USTFCCCA All-Academic Honors

Jul 24, 2019 | Track & Field

Coffman Wins NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship

By: The Wildcats were one of four from the Big 12 to have both men's and women's teams honored

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas State men's and women's track and field teams earned All-Academic team recognition from the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) for the third consecutive year, as the organization released its annual academic honors earlier this week.

The Wildcat men's and women's teams were among 366 Division I teams (227 women's teams and 139 men's teams) honored for academic excellence, which requires a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 during the 2018-19 season. The women's team earned a 3.47 GPA, while the men's team earned a 3.09 GPA.

The K-State program was one of just four Big 12 schools to earn the distinction for both their men's and women's teams, including Baylor, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

In addition to the team recognitions, 16 Wildcat student-athletes (five men and 11 women) were lauded for individual USTFCCCA All-Academic honors. The men's award winners include junior Aaron Booth, sophomore Simone Fassina, freshman Antoni Hoyte-Small and seniors Kurt Loevenstein and Brett Neelly. The women's honorees include senior Asha Cave, senior Morgan Coffman, freshman Alex Ferguson, sophomore Clare Gibson, junior Helene Ingvaldsen, sophomore Kassidy Johnson, senior Ranae McKenzie, junior Konstantina Romaiou, junior Lauren Taubert, junior Gabby Tozer and sophomore Shaelyn Ward.

To qualify for the USTFCCCA All-Academic honors, the student-athlete must earn a 3.25 GPA and met at least athletic standard, which includes finishing the indoor regular season ranked in the national top-96 in an individual event, ranking in the national top-48 in an indoor relay event or participating in any round of the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Of the 16 Wildcats to be recognized for USTFCCCA All-Academic honors, Neelly and McKenzie earned their fourth-career honor, while four others tallied their third-career (Coffman, Ingvaldsen, Romaiou, Taubert) and second-career (Fassina, Gibson, Loevenstein, Ward) distinctions. Six student-athletes (Booth, Hoyte-Small, Cave, Ferguson, Johnson, Tozer) posted the honor for the first time in their careers.

The accolades continued another strong academic season for the Wildcat track and field team, which included Coffman earning CoSIDA/Google Cloud Academic All-American First Team honors and Neelly and McKenzie being named the men's and women's Big 12 Track and Field Scholar-Athletes of the Year. In addition, 31 student-athletes, including 24 first team selections, were named to the Academic All-Big 12 team in early May.

Coffman, who received a $10,000 postgraduate scholarship from the NCAA on July 23, became the program's first Academic All-American first team selection since 2014, while Neelly earned his second straight Scholar-Athlete Award (after sharing it in 2018) and McKenzie became the first female track and field athlete to bring home the Scholar-Athlete Award.

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