Recent Allegheny College Graduate Earns Second CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team Honor

Allegheny Graduate Mica HanishAllegheny recent graduate distance runner Mica Hanish has been named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America First Team.

For Hanish, this marks her second straight selection to the All-America First Team, and the 40th overall and 15th First Team selection for Allegheny. In June, she earned her second CoSIDA Academic All-District honor.

In the fall of 2019, Hanish placed 20th — earning All-America status — at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships, an event that she competed in during each of her three years. That performance came one week after she finished second at the Great Lakes Regional and three weeks after taking second at the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championships. That winter, she became the 2020 NCAC individual champion of the indoor 3,000-meter run where she clocked the 24th fastest time in the country of 10:03.34, and was the anchor-leg of the NCAC champion distance medley relay. Hanish was also fourth in the Great Lakes region for her personal best mile time of 5:05.36, which was run at the Oberlin College BSN Invitational. In March 2020, she was named to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Region Team for her performances in both the mile and the 3,000-meter run.

In her cross country career, Hanish has garnered All-NCAC selections three times, including two First Team honors and one Second Team honor, and three All-Region honors. On the track, she has earned All-NCAC accolades in the 3000-meter run, DMR, one-mile and 5000-meter run.

Academically, Hanish graduated in December with a 4.0 GPA while majoring in Mathematics and minoring in Economics. A distinguished Alden Scholar (GPA above 3.80), she was a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the national student-athlete honor society, and Pi Mu Epsilon, the national mathematics honor society, where she served as treasurer of Allegheny’s chapter. She was also the recipient of the 2021 Female William Crawford Academic Merit Award and the 2021 NCAC Senior Scholar-Athlete Award. She received The College Mathematics Journal Next Generation Prize, which was awarded to the journal article in the May 2020 issue that the students selected as the best for undergraduate mathematics students nationwide to read.

To be eligible for the award, nominated and voted on by Sports Information Directors, student-athletes must be of sophomore or above academic class, hold at least a cumulative 3.30 GPA and be a starter or important reserve on their team.

This story was originally published on AlleghenyGators.com.