Men's Cross Country Earns USTFCCCA All-Academic Honors

NEW ORLEANS – The Mars Hill men's cross country team has earned United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Team All-Academic recognition for the sixth consecutive year as the organization announced its yearly academic honors on Wednesday.

Five Lion runners earned individual All-Academic honors. Senior Derek Gibson and sophomore Nathan Jones were named All-Academic Individuals for the second consecutive year and were joined by freshmen Brandon Beard, Garrett Farrimond and Gil Gilreath. Mars Hill was one of five schools to have five All-Academic individuals.

As a team, the Lions compiled a 3.07 team GPA, earning team honors for the 11^th time in program history.

Honorees must have compiled a cumulative GPA or 3.25 or greater and must have finished among the top 30 percent of total eligible runners at his or her regional championship (total Division II teams in the region multiplied by seven runners per team) or in the top half of the field at the NCAA Championships. The 208 men were representative of 97 institutions and 21 conferences.  In order to be eligible for team All-Academic honors, a team must have a 3.0 or higher cumulative GPA and score at an NCAA regional meet.

Mars Hill won the Southeast Region meet on November 22 and finished in 27^th place at the NCAA national meet on December 6. The Lions won their 18^th consecutive South Atlantic Conference crown in early November.