LOWELL, Mass. – UMass Lowell senior Jaclyn Solimine (Haverhill, Mass.) and junior Alli Wood (Chelmsford, Mass.) have been named to the America East Cross Country All-Academic Team.  The announcement was made by the conference this afternoon.
 
"Obviously we had a good season in competition and this shows that we had a good season in the classroom," said Cross Country Head Coach Gary Gardner.  "These are well rounded people and a well-rounded team and this shows that balance."
 
Solimine is a Mechanical Engineering major and carries a 3.88 Grade Point Average; Wood has a 3.96 GPA in nursing. 
 
Solimine is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society, Pi Tau Sigma, the mechanical Engineering Honors Society and Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honors Society.  She has, during the summer, worked as an engineering research assistant.
 
Wood has been selected to be a member of the ODK Honors Society.  She has earned recognition on the Dean's List in each of her semesters at UMass Lowell. 
 
"Being a distance runner is about motivation and self-discipline, being a good athlete is not enough," said Gardner.  "It's the same thing in the classroom, motivation and self-discipline makes the difference.  They are both well rounded and tremendous leaders by example."
 
The coach is quick to point out that Solimine and Wood are not alone.  The team shows a GPA of better than 3.4 with 15 of the 18 members working toward either science or engineering degrees. 
 
Both Solimine and Wood were key contributors to a cross country team that earned its first ever regional ranking and finished third at the America East Championships.  That was the team's strongest finish since beginning the transition to Division I.
 
Solimine was named to the All-Conference First Team after a seventh place finish at the Conference Championships.  She was consistently among the River Hawks top two finishers. Wood earned All-Conference Second Team honors with a 12th place finish at the Championships.  She was a consistent scorer throughout the season.
 
The River Hawk track and field teams will open their season on Saturday December 3rd at the Alden Invitational hosted by Brown University in Providence.