Jones and Mills Earn USTFCCCA Academic Accolades
7/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
NEW ORLEANS -- Gonzaga's Maggie Jones and Shelby Mills received 2016 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic recognition for the recently-completed track and field season.
The Bulldog men and women also received academic team recognition from the USTFCCCA. A total of 220 women's team earned All-Academic Team honors. The GU women had the 16th best team GPA of those 220 programs at 3.55. The Bulldog men boasted a 3.26 GPA, which ranked 32nd out of 122 teams. Teams must carry a 3.00 cumulative GPA to make the list.
Mills, a biology major with a 3.37 cumulative GPA, received the honor for the second straight season. Following an unbelievable cross country season, she continued her success on the track during the indoor and outdoor seasons. After becoming the first student-athlete in school history to run at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships last year, she returned to the national event in 2016. Mills finished an incredible season by placing 17th in the nation in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in Eugene.
During the indoor season, Mills smashed the 5,000-meter mark at the Husky Classic. She raced to a 16:25.35 finish in the elite field at the Dempsey Center. Two weeks earlier, the Snohomish, Wash. native snapped Lindsay Drake's three-year-old 3,000-meter mark with a 9:35.31 finish at the UW Invitational in Seattle.
Jones capped off of her Gonzaga career with a stellar effort in the women's 5,000 meters at the NCAA West Preliminaries. She finished eighth in her heat with a time of 16:43.62. The senior entered the field seeded 48th and finished 19th in the region. She majored in biology and environmental studies with a 3.30 GPA.
A total of 910 women from 192 institutions earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors. To qualify for the USTFCCCA All-Academic Track and Field Team, the student-athlete must have compiled a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 and have met either of the following athletic standards: for the indoor season, a student-athlete must have finished the regular season ranked in the national top 96 in an individual event or ranked in the national top 48 (collective listing) in a relay event on the official NCAA POP list provided by TFRRS.org; for the outdoor season, a student-athlete must have participated in any round of the NCAA Division I Championships (including preliminary rounds).
