For a second straight year, Covenant women's cross country runner Beth Burgess has been voted to the Capital One Academic All-District team presented by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), announced the organization on Friday.
Burgess becomes the third Covenant student-athlete (joining men's soccer seniors Snoopy Davidson and Joel Friesen) to be honored during the 2014-15 academic year. She will now be entered into the Academic All-America voting which begins next week.
In order to be nominated for this award, student-athletes must have a GPA of 3.3 or higher and be a significant contributor to their team.
The ballot is then voted on by various Sports Information personnel within the district.
On the course, Burgess, a native of Nicholasville, Ky., wrapped up a remarkable career this past season. She set the program record (for a second time in two years) in the 6k with a time of 23:44 at the Sewanee Invitational on Sept. 6 and was named USA South Runner of the Year. She also earned USA South Runner of the Week three times during this past season. During her career, Burgess was a four-time all-conference honoree (twice in the USA South and twice in the Great South Athletic Conference) and in 2013 she won the USA South individual title.
Burgess graduated from Covenant earlier this month with a degree in Biology and a 3.83 GPA. With her second Academic All-District honor, Burgess has earned multiple academic honors both at the conference and regional levels. She also earned USTFCCCA All-Academic following her junior year. In addition to majoring in Biology, Burgess had minors in Mathematics and Chemistry.
Burgess will be attending medical school at the University of Kentucky beginning in the fall.