At the conclusion of Sunday's Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Cross Country Championships, Chestnut Hill College Men's Cross Country runner Jason Fisher was named the recipient of the CACC's Top XVII Award.

Fisher is the first Chestnut Hill College Men's Cross Country athlete to earn the CACC's top academic honor for the sport.

The CACC Top XVII Award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the CACC championships. It is modeled after the NCAA Elite 90 Award and is a direct product of the CACC Strategic Plan.

In order to be considered, the student-athlete must have earned at least 48 college credits toward their GPA (at their current institution), as well as being a member of the active roster. In the event of a tie, it is broken by the total number of credit hours earned. The award debuted in the 2013-14 season, and was named the Top XIV Award after the 14 championship sports the CACC offered at the time.  The title of the award has changed as the number of championships sponsored by the conference has increased becoming the Top XVII award beginning in 2022-23 with the addition of women's bowling  as the CACC's 17th championship sport.

Fisher is one of 13  Chestnut Hill College student-athletes to earn the CACC's top academic honor, joining Nele Haag (2022 & 2023 – women's Tennis); Joao Sousa (2023 - Men's Tennis); Eryn Moore (2023- Bowling); P.J. Spernal (2021- men's lacrosse); Ben Revak (2020 – men's lacrosse); Kai Adler (2020 – men's tennis); Haley Novello (2020- women's lacrosse); Jesus Darias (2019- men's tennis); Hunter Leckonby (2016 & 2018 – women's lacrosse); Kaitlin Iavecchia (2017 -women's lacrosse); Joseph Monahan (2017- baseball) and Emmanuel Egbosimbah (2015 – men's soccer).

A two-time CACC All-Academic team honoree, Fisher carries a double major, pursuing degrees in English and Secondary Education. The senior runner is also a two-time division 2 Athletic director's Association (D2ADA) Academic Achievement Award winner and was inducted into Chi Alpha Sigma the national student athlete honor society and Sigma Tau Delta, the international english honor society last spring.

On the race course this season, Fisher ran the fastest 8,000-meter race of his career at the Lock Haven Invitational, clocking in at 27:23.1.  He has finished under 30 minutes in four of six 8K races this season and had a personal best time of 19:42 in a 6K race to open the season. He has competed at each of the last two NCAA East Region Championships.

The men's cross country team turned in a sixth place finish at Sunday's championship meet, with Fisher placing 23^rd overall in a field of 67 runners.