EAST STROUDSBURG – East Stroudsburg University junior Christina O'Connor has been named to the Capital One Academic All-America second team for women's track and field and cross country for the 2013-14 academic year, it was announced Wednesday.

O'Connor (Oneonta, N.Y./Oneonta), a Biology major with a 3.79 grade-point average, earned her first career Academic All-America selection.

She gained All-America status for the second time in her career this spring, placing fifth in the high jump at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships at Grand Valley State (Mich.) in May.

O'Connor won the PSAC indoor and outdoor titles and was also an NCAA during both seasons this year. She is a three-time PSAC champion and three-time NCAA qualifier in her career, hitting the NCAA provisional mark in five of her six seasons of competition.

She previously earned All-America status as a sophomore during the 2013 indoor season, placing sixth in Division II.

She hit an outdoor PR of 5-8 to finish fifth at this year's NCAA Championships. Her indoor PR of 5-8 1/2 was set at ESU's DeSchriver Invitational as a sophomore.

O'Connor is ESU's fifth Academic All-America selections this year, joining Robert Bleiler (football), Nemanja Nikolic and Khriswayne Wallace (men's soccer) and Brendan McKeown (wrestling).

She is the fifth ESU women's track and field athlete to be named Academic All-America, following Laura Mason (1983-85), Cheryl Griffin (2001), Rose Mascoli (2011-13) and Corinne Fitzgerald (2012-13).


About the Academic All-District and All-America program

ESU is tied for second in the PSAC with 74 Academic All-District selections in the last seven years (2007-08 through 2013-14).

ESU had five Academic All-Americans and eight Academic All-District selections this year - O'Connor, Bleiler, Nikolic, Wallace, McKeown, Bryan Thomson (football) and William Berry and Damien Boham (men's track & field).

During the 2012-13 academic year, the Warriors had eight Academic All-Americans and 11 student-athletes named to Academic All-District teams.

The Academic All-District and All-America teams recognize student-athletes for athletic and academic achievement and are nominated and voted on by members of CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America).

This marks the third year that separate teams have been selected for Division II, Division III and College Division (NAIA/Canadian schools/two-year schools) institutions. The previous "College Division" included all DII, DIII, Canadian and junior college programs.

District 2 of Division II follows the NCAA's regional model and includes all schools from the PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference), Mountain East Conference and CIAA (Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association).

ESU has had 34 student-athletes combine for 48 Academic All-America awards in school history.


PSAC Selections

The PSAC had 12 track & field student-athletes (8 women, 4 men) earn Academic All-America honors.

The women's first-team selections were Tabitha Bemis (Edinboro), Vicki Davis (Bloomsburg), Mallory Sanner (Seton Hill) and Kara Styles (Slippery Rock).

Second-team picks were O'Connor, Sarah Krolick (Edinboro) and Megan Lundy (Shippensburg). Julia Cain (Slippery Rock) was on the third team.

The men had three first-team selections in Aaron Dinzo (California), Dustin Thomas (Edinboro) and David Reinhardt (Slippery Rock). Morgan Huegel (California) was named to the second team.