University of Tennessee Athletics
UT Men Named Track & Field Scholar Team of Year
July 28, 2016 | Track & Field
NEW ORLEANS -- The Tennessee men's track and field team was named the USTFCCCA DI Track and Field Scholar Team of the Year for both the 2016 indoor and outdoor seasons. The UT women garnered All-Academic team honors and 11 Vols were named All-Academic Individuals.
On the men's side, Cameron Brown, Malik Elion, Tyler Porter and Matthew Zajac earned All-Academic Individual accolades. Chelsea Blaase, Erin Champion, Kristen Denk, Lenysse Dyer, Maia McCoy, Cassie Wertman and Layla White earned Women's All-Academic Individual honors.
"I am thrilled that our men's team won this incredible honor," Tennessee director of track and field and cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "It is very important to us that our student-athletes have a full student-athlete experience at Tennessee. We made it a very big point to improve our overall team GPA and we put emphasis on it just as we did with our overall NCAA finishes.
"You can see what momentum can do. You put a goal out there, you motivate a group of people towards it, both of our teams took it very seriously and we had a great year of academic success. I am extremely proud of the efforts of our academic adviser Greig Cryer and the Thornton Center in assisting in these kids' academic pursuits and the academic success that we have pulled off this year. Overall, it really rounds out the year with all of the success and breakthroughs that the men had."
The UT men had a 3.06 cumulative GPA and became the fourth men's team to sweep the award for both the indoor and outdoor seasons, joining Arkansas (2015), Florida (2012 and 2013) and Stanford (2007). In order to be in the running for Scholar Team of the Year, a team must finish highly at the respective national championship and have at least a 3.00 cumulative team GPA. All told, there were 122 men's teams and 220 women's teams up for consideration. During the track and field season, no men's team stood out more than Tennessee when academics and athletics were combined. The Vols wrapped up the academic year with a team GPA of 3.06 and finished third at NCAA Indoors and sixth at NCAA Outdoors.
The Tennessee women posted an impressive 3.22 team GPA to earn All-Academic team honors and enjoyed a strong year as well, finishing seventh at NCAA Indoors and 32nd at NCAA Outdoors.
Last month, Brown and Blaase were named to the 2015-16 Academic All-America® Division I Men's and Women's Track & Field/Cross Country Teams, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The UT women's cross country team was a 2015 NCAA Division I Women's All-Academic Team and Blaase also earned All-Academic Individual accolades for the cross country season.
