CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced their 2015 All-Academic honors, naming six from the Orange and Blue: Nicole Choquette, Breeana Coleman, Jennifer DeBellis, Amanda Duvendack, Stephanie Richartz and Alyssa Schneider.
To qualify for the honor, track and field athletes must finish the season with a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher, and have either finished the indoor season ranked in the national top-96 in an individual event, finished in the top-48 in a relay event and/or have participated in any round of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships.
Choquette earned the honor as a redshirt-freshman majoring in Earth, Society and Environmental Sustainability. On the track in 2015, she took home the Big Ten Indoor Championship in the 600m, posting a season-best time of 1:29.48. Outdoors, She competed in four different events during the year, including the Big Ten Outdoor Championships in the 800m.
Coleman graduated this past May with a major in Human Resources and Industrial Relations. During the indoor season, she won seven titles across three events, finishing eighth at Big Ten Indoors in the 60m hurdles. Outdoors, Coleman finished 10th at Big Tens in the 100m hurdles and qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary meet.
DeBellis, entering her senior year in civil engineering, was a model of consistency in the pole vault during the indoor and outdoor season with finishes in the top-five in 11 of 16 meets, while only finishing outside the top-10 once. DeBellis took home fourth-place at Big Ten Indoors and finished seventh during the outdoor Big Ten meet.
Duvendack, a biology major, primarily ran in the 800m during the outdoor season and earned a bronze medal at the Big Ten outdoor meet with her best time of the season, 2:06.16.
Richartz graduated with a degree in Industrial Engineering and had one of the best seasons in Fighting Illini history, winning the fourth and fifth Big Ten pole vault titles of her Illinois career. She went on to win the bronze medal at both indoor and outdoor NCAA Championship meets, setting a new school record for the pole in both meets with a mark of 4.45m.
Finally, Schneider graduated with a degree in mathematics while being a consistent asset to the Illini in long distance events. She took home third-place in the 5,000m at Big Ten Indoor Championships and finished in the top-10 in both the 5,000m and 10,000m events at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships.
As a whole, the Fighting Illini women's track and field team finished with a combined GPA of 3.37, to be named a 2015 USTFCCCA All-Academic Team.
