Men's Cross Country Named USTFCCCA All-Academic Team

Feb. 15, 2012

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The University of Kansas men’s cross country squad earned All-Academic Team honors for the 2011 season, it was announced Wednesday by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

To be eligible for the award, a team must have a minimum 3.00 cumulative GPA and must have competed at least five runners at the NCAA regional championship meet in November. KU was one of eight teams in the Big 12 Conference to be selected for the honor, as the Jayhawks recorded a team GPA of 3.21.

The KU men were led by a deep group of individuals who not only excelled on the cross country trails, but in the classroom as well. Senior Austin Bussing, juniors Josh Baden, Sean Proehl and Zach Zarda, as well as sophomores Jose Muñoz and Josh Munsch were Kansas’ men’s first-team honorees on the Academic All-Big 12 lists released in October. Earning spots on the second-team were junior Ben Wilson and redshirt freshmen Conner Day and Josh Harsin.

In addition to its academic success, the men’s team collected a wide list of athletic accolades throughout the season. Bussing and Zarda proved to be the leaders down the final stretch of the 2011 campaign as both were the team’s top finishers at both the conference and regional meets. The men also accomplished something they hadn’t in over five seasons, as the team saw three runners in the top-40 of the regional meet for the first time since 2006.

The men’s squad would end the season with a seventh-place team finish at the Big 12 Championships and would come in eighth at the NCAA Midwest Regional in November.