Nine Greyhounds & Both Cross Country Teams Garner Academic Awards From USTFCCCA
NEW ORLEANS, La. --- Moravian University has had nine student-athletes named United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic individuals and both the men's and women's cross country teams honored as an All-Academic Team by the USTFCCCA for the 2025 season.
NEW ORLEANS, La. --- Moravian University has had nine student-athletes named United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic individuals and both the men's and women's cross country teams honored as an All-Academic Team by the USTFCCCA for the 2025 season.
Moravian's honorees were seniors Tori Champagne, Meghan Myers and Tara Smurla, junior Kierstyn Klingner and freshmen Kiley Amend and Kate Veivia from the women's team and senior Bryan Kerchner, junior Gavin Hefferan and freshman Braeden Knotts from the men's squad. Smurla is majoring in early childhood special education while Amend and Myers are nursing majors. Champagne is majoring in computer science while Klingner is a health science major. Kerchner and Hefferan are both health science/pre-athletic training majors while Knotts and Veivia have not decided on a major yet.
To earn All-Academic individual honors, student-athletes must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.30 and have finished in the top 25 percent of the finishers at the NCAA Division III Regionals last November.
"This recognition truly is the definition of a student-athlete," stated Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jesse Baumann. "You need to earn at least a 3.3 GPA and then finish in the top 25% of runners across our region. Only runners in your top 7 can be eligible for this and with most rosters composed of 20-30 athletes, it really is a very small number who are eligible for this distinction."
Smurla repeated as the 2025 NCAA Division III Metro Regional title with a time of 21:11.4 on the 6,000-meter course at Rowan University as she earned All-Region honors and finished first of 192 runners, and she finished 182nd of 290 competitors at the 2025 NCAA Division III National Championships. An additional trio of Greyhounds earned All-Region honors with Myers placing 13th at 22:28.7, Veivia taking 29th at 22:58.1 and Klingner finished 34th in 23:04.3. Champagne was 36th in the meet in 23:13.0 while Amend finished in 42nd in 23:23.9. The times for Smurla, Myers, Veivia, Klingner and Amend were all career best times.
For the men, Hefferan finished sixth of 179 runners in the 2025 NCAA Division III Metro Regional in a 8,000-meter and personal best time of 24:45.9 while Kerchner was tenth in 24:51.5 and Knotts took 34th at 25:55.9 as the trio garnered All-Region honors. Moravian finished third as a team in the regional with Hefferan going on to race in the NCAA Division III National Championships where he placed 104th of 291 runners.
The women's squad also maintained a 3.71 cumulative GPA after the fall semester while the men's team had a 3.40 GPA. To be considered an All-Academic Team, programs must have a cumulative GPA of 3.10 or greater and also compiled a team score at the NCAA Regionals.
"These athletes are often working campus jobs and internships, participating in clubs like the Investment Club to enhance their experience within their field of study, and volunteering for various organizations all while being in season for the entire academic year," noted Baumann. "It takes a special level of discipline and commitment to be a cross country runner to begin with, but then to be one of the top 25% in the region while maintaining a strong GPA is an incredible achievement and speaks volumes about their character, talent, and devotion. We're exceptionally blessed to have nine athletes who meet all these requirements and it's a reflection of why both teams managed to win the conference title and finish top 3 in the region."
To view the complete list of the USTFCCCA Academic honorees, visit https://www.ustfccca.org/2026/01/featured/2025-ustfccca-college-program-divisions-cross-country-academic-awards.
