Walls, Oden and Kemboi Earn A-Sun All-Academic Nods
5/20/2013 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katie Parker, kparker@uscupstate.edu
A-Sun Women's Release | A-Sun Men's Release
MACON, Ga. – Ross Oden, Gilbert Kemboi and Brittany Walls of the USC Upstate men's and women's track & field teams were named to the Atlantic Sun Conference Outdoor All-Academic Teams as announced by the league office Monday morning.
Oden was a unanimous choice to the All-Academic Team, finishing his junior year with a 3.404 cumulative GPA as a chemistry major. He was named to the All-Academic Team for cross country back in the fall and for indoor track at the beginning of the spring semester. Oden picked up five points for the Spartans at the A-Sun Outdoor Championships with a big fourth-place finish in the 10,000-meter with a time of 32:07.58 to narrowly edge the fifth-place finisher. He posted a season-best time of 31:33.80 in the 10K at the Raleigh Relays. Oden recorded a season-best mark in 5,000-meter at the 49er Classic, crossing the line in 15:05.43.
Spartan standout, Kemboi wrapped up his career at Upstate with a 3.587 GPA as a unanimous pick to the academic team, while majoring in sociology. He defended his A-Sun Outdoor titles in the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter with times of 14:58.29 and 30:36.16, respectively. The senior qualified for his second-straight Regional meet in the 10K, resetting his school record at Stanford's Payton Jordan Invite with a time of 29:15.69. Kemboi also broke his program-best mark in the 5K earlier this year, clocking in at 14:09.86 at the Duke Invite.
Walls represents the Upstate women's team as an Academic All-Conference selection, boasting a 3.324 GPA as a nursing major. The sophomore collected the bronze medal in the heptathlon at the A-Sun Championships, posting a school record 4,318 points in the event, where she set an outdoor school record in the high jump, clearing 5-05.00 (1.65-meters). Walls finished seventh in the open high jump at the A-Sun meet and tallied a total of 7.50 points for the Spartans.
"I am extremely proud of each of these three individuals," said Upstate head coach Natalie Smith. "All three of these student-athletes are great in the classroom and represent our program on and off the track very well. They are very deserving of this award and we are looking for awards like this to become a norm for both our men's and women's teams."
The A-Sun introduced the new sport-by-sport Academic All-Conference teams in the 2011-12 academic year to recognize student-athletes who embody the conference's mission of Building Winners for Life. All the members of the team boast a 3.30 cumulative GPA or better and participated in at least half of their team's games/meets.
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