CAPITAL ONE ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA® TEAM S ELECTED BY C O SIDA FOR RELEASE: Thursday, June 25 – 12 noon (EDT) Please visit the Capital One Academic All-America® website http://www.capitaloneacademicallamerica.com/ REBECCA ESSELSTEIN OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY AND JOHN WELK OF NEBRASKA LEAD CAPITAL ONE ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA® DIVISION I TRACK & FIELD/CROSS COUNTRY TEAMS AUSTIN, Texas–Senior Rebecca Esselstein of the United States Air Force Academy and senior John Welk of the University of Nebraska headline the 2014-15 Capital One Academic All-America® Division I Men’s and Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country Teams, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). An astronautical engineering major with a 3.98 grade-point average, Esselstein was selected as the winner of the Capital One Division I Academic All-America® of the Year award for Division I Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country. Esselstein, a native of Dayton, Ohio, was named the top overall graduate at the Air Force Academy for the Class of 2015, recognizing excellence in academic, military and athletic performance. Esselstein, a Rhodes Scholar and recipient of the Marshall Scholarship, was also named the top cadet, academically, among the Academy's 840 graduates. As a member of the Falcons' cross country and track teams, she competed in all six of the Falcons' cross country meets in the fall and impacted the Academy record book during the track and field season. A member of the distance medley relay team that won the Mountain West championship in 2013, she ran the 800-meter leg of the DMR team that recorded the second-fastest time in Academy history (11:49.14, adjusted for altitude) this past season. Welk, a nutrition science major with a 3.99 G.P.A., was selected as the winner of the Capital One Division I Academic All- America® of the Year award for Division I Men’s Track & Field/Cross Country. A native of Bismarck, N.D., Welk was a two-time All-American and part of Nebraska’s 400-meter relay team, was awarded a Big Ten Postgraduate Scholarship and the Big Ten Medal of Honor. He is a two-time NCAA Elite 89 award winner and was chosen as Nebraska’s Male Student-Athlete of the Year. He held the top G.P.A. of any male student-athlete competing at the NCAA Championships in both 2013 and 2014. There are eight repeat selections to the Capital One Academic All-America® Division I Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country team, including five student-athletes on the first team – Esselstein is a three-time honoree, earning second team honors in 2014 and third team in 2013, while Butler University senior Mara Olson earned Capital One Academic All-America® first team honors for the second straight year. Other repeat selections include Kent State University junior Dior Delophont and Eastern Kentucky University senior Ann Eason, who both moved up to the first team after being named to the second team in 2014, and University of Alabama senior Nia Barnes, who moved up from the third team to the first team. A pair of senior student-athletes – Florida State University’s Colleen Quigley and University of Southern California’s Alexandra Collatz – who earned previous honors make up part of the Capital One Academic All-America® Division I Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country second team. Quigley earns second team honors for the second-straight year, while Collatz moves up from the third team to the second team in 2015. In addition, Radford University junior Teresa Williamson was selected to the Academic All-America® Division I Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country third team for the second-straight year. Olson, who carries a 4.00 G.P.A. in biology, earned Capital One Academic All-America® Division I Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country first team honors for the second-straight year. A native of Minneapolis, Minn., she concluded a stellar career at Butler by finishing in 11th place in the women’s 10,000-meter run at the NCAA Championships, earning second team All- America honors. Olson, who was the BIG EAST Champion in the 10,000-meter run, is a two-time winner of the NCAA Elite 89 Award, given to the athlete with the highest cumulative G.P.A. at one of the 89 national championships. Esselstein & Welk Top Capital One Academic All-America® Division I Track & Field Teams – Page 2 Barnes, a telecommunications/film-media production major who carries a 4.00 G.P.A., earned first team All-American honors after finishing in eighth place in the hammer throw at the NCAA Championships. She posted a personal best of 66 feet and one inch in the weight throw and has been inducted into Alpha Lambda Delta, Kappa Tau Alpha and Phi Eta Sigma honor societies. Barnes, a West Orange, N.J. native, also earned the 2015 Telecommunication and Film Senior Academic Achievement Award. Delophont, a native of Nancy, France who carries a 3.88 G.P.A. in fashion design, capped off her year with a 17th place finish in the high jump at the NCAA Championships. She was named the Mid-American Conference Most Valuable Performer and was a First Team All-MAC selection. Delophont won both the long jump at 6.01 meters (19' 8.75") and the triple jump at 13.26 meters (43' 6"). Her mark in the triple jump was a personal-best and tied the school record, set the MAC Championship meet record and the Ball State Track record. Eason, an elementary education teaching major with a 3.97 G.P.A., was voted the Ohio Valley Conference Female Indoor Track Athlete of the Year in February. A native of Lexington, Ky., she won both the 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters at the OVC Indoor Championships. During the cross country season, Eason was named the OVC Female Runner of the Year for the third-straight fall and became only the second EKU woman ever to reach the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. Quigley, a dietetics major with a 3.87 G.P.A., was named to the Capital One Academic All-America® Division I Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country second team for the second-straight year. Quigley, who was named the 2015 ACC Women’s Track Performer of the Year, put an exclamation point on her decorated career by capturing the NCAA Outdoor Championship title in the 3000-meter steeplechase. A St. Louis, Mo., native, Quigley earned nine first team All-American honors during her career. In addition to the NCAA title, Quigley claimed her first ACC Outdoor title in the 1500 and she was the top-finisher among collegians in the 1500 at the Mt. SAC Relays, placing fifth in 4:11.61 behind four professional runners. Collatz, who carries a 3.51 G.P.A. in cognitive science, earns Capital One Academic All-America® Division I Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country second team honors after being named to the third team in 2014. A native of Bakersfield, Calif., she concluded her career by earning the third All-American honor of career after finishing in eighth place in the discus at the NCAA Championships. Collatz won the 2014 Pac-12 discus title and ranks second on USC's all-time list in the discus throw with a mark of 187-6. Williamson, who carries a 3.95 G.P.A. in nursing, earns third team honors for the second-straight year. A Chesapeake, Va. native, she was named the Big South Conference’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and has won seven Big South titles. She capped her outdoor season by setting a conference record in the 1,500-meter run, and also won the 800 meters during both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Rounding out the Academic All-America® Division I Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country first team are seniors, Dezerea Bryant and Kendra Harrison of the University of Kentucky, Courtney Frerichs of the University of Missouri Kansas City, Christina Hillman of Iowa State University, Lea Johnson of the University of Miami (Fla.), Sandi Morris of the University of Arkansas, Montene Speight of Texas Tech University, and senior Maddie Van Beek of North Dakota State University, along with juniors, Julia Ratcliffe of Princeton University and Kelly Williams of West Virginia University. Joining Quigley and Collatz on the Capital One Academic All-America® Division I Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country second team are junior Hannah Acton of Florida State, sophomore Kendall Baisden of the University of Texas, senior Eve Bishop of Cornell University, junior Chelsea Blaase of the University of Tennessee, senior Katie Borchers of the Ohio State University, senior Nadia Eke of Columbia University, graduate student Kaitlyn Gillespie of West Virginia University, senior Alex Hartig of Arizona State University, graduate student Carley McCutchen of Montana State University, senior Brooke Pleger of Bowling Green State University, junior Jenna Prandini of the University of Oregon, senior Jeannelle Scheper of the University of South Carolina and senior Jessica Tonn of Stanford University. The Academic All-America® Division I Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country third team consists of Williamson, graduate student Brianne Kee of Grand Canyon; seniors, Lindsay Clark of Michigan State, Katrina Coogan from Georgetown, Clare Field of Northern Kentucky, Rebecca Garcia of San Jose State, Rachel Hilliard of Massachusetts, Marisa Howard and Kate Jette of Boise State, Lisa Junta of the U.S. Military Academy, Ida Storm from UCLA, Holly Salzbrenner of Northern Iowa and Rachele Schulist of Michigan State; Vermont junior Alicia Clark and West Virginia sophomore Jillian Forsey.