Two members of the Chestnut Hill College Men's Track and Field and Cross Country teams have been named to the 2024-2025 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District® Women's Track and Field/Cross Country team in an announcement made by the organization and the CSC Academic All-America® committee.
Named to this year's Academic All-District® team were senior Braden Berkey and Junior Michael Lopez-Zabala. Both athletes are first time honorees.
The 2024-25 Academic All-District® Men's Track and Field/Cross Country Teams, selected by College Sports Communicators, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field or court and in the classroom. The CSC Academic All-America® program separately recognizes Men's Track and Field/Cross Country honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.
To be eligible for Academic All-District® Track and Field/Cross Country accolades, student-athletes must be at least at sophomore athletically and academically, have a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or better and record at least one top 50 individual performance in their respective region in either cross country, indoor track or outdoor track. Eligible nominees will be based off of TFRRS performance list rankings at the time of nomination. Graduate students must have a 3.50 cumulative GPA in both their undergraduate and graduate programs.
The two athletes were both inducted into Chi Alpha Sigma the national college athlete honor society last month while both have earned Dean's list and CHC Athletic Academic Honor roll in every semester while attending Chestnut Hill. Both Berkey and Lopez-Zabala were also named to the Central Atlantic collegiate conference All-academic Team earlier this month.
A junior biology major Lopez-Zabala was inducted into Sigma Zeta the national science and mathematics honor society this past year. He is also part of the Interdisciplinary Honors Program at Chestnut Hill and has earned Departmental Honors for his major. In addition, he was named to the CACC Academic Honor roll in each of the past three semesters dating back to the program's inaugural in Fall of 2023.
Qualifying the CACC Track and field Championship in the javelin throw, Lopez-Zabala tossed a personal-best 42.14 meters to finish fifth overall. His toss ranked him 23rd on the D2 East region performance list.
Berkey also competed at the CACC Championships, racing in the 10,000 meter event, finishing seventh overall with a time of 38:20.72. Earlier in the season he recorded a time of 35:01.67 in the event at the Paul Donahue Invite, which ranked 22nd on the regional performance list
A junior exercise science major, Berkey has earned CACC Academic Honor roll accolades twice (Spring and Fall of 2024) in addition to the academic honors detailed above.
Academic All-District® honorees are reviewed by a group of Academic All-America® committee members for consideration for advancement to the CSC Academic All-America® national ballot, where first, second and third team Academic All-America® honorees are chosen by the CSC Division II membership and the Academic All-America® core committee.
