Monday, December 3, 2018

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The GNAC not only has some of the best runners in the country, but it has some of the best student-athletes in the sport of cross country as well.

The conference swept the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships’ top academic awards as Central Washington senior Alexa Shindruk and Western Oregon senior Tyler Jones were named the recipients of the NCAA’s Elite 90 Award.

The Elite 90 Award recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level of his or her sport while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. The Elite 90 is presented to the student-athletes with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s 90 championships.

Shindruk and Jones were among three runners with a 4.00 GPA named to the GNAC Cross Country All-Academic Team last week. Both were also among four individual qualifiers from the conference for the NCAA Championships.

Shindruk was the GNAC’s top finisher in the women’s race at the national championships, placing 21st in a time of 23:14.7 over 6,000 meters. The performance earned Shindruk her first cross country All-American trophy. Shindruk owns a 4.00 GPA as an accounting major.

Jones was one of two Western Oregon men’s runners to earn invitations to nationals. He placed 60th in Saturday’s race with a time of 33:56.8 over the 10,000-meter course. A Google Cloud/CoSIDA Second Team All-American in 2017-18, Jones owns a 4.00 GPA as a mathematics major.

Both Shindruk and Jones were presented with their awards at the Division II Cross Country Championships on Dec. 1.