The Drake University men's and women's track and field teams have been named All-Academic Teams by the United States Track & Field And Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) for the 2015-16 season. Individually, five Bulldogs were named All-Academic by the organization.
To earn All-Academic Team honors, teams must post a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or higher. Drake's women's team posted a team GPA of 3.44 while he men's squad owned a 3.19 GPA to earn the honor. Both Drake's men's and women's teams have now earned the honor in five consecutive years.
Kayla Bell (Bolingbrook, Ill.), Reed Fischer (Minnetonka, Minn.), Emma Huston (Des Moines, Iowa), Robert McCann (Mississauga, Ontario) and Bas Van Leersum (Zandaam, The Netherlands) also earned All-Academic honors from the USTFCCCA.
To be named All-Academic, a student-athlete must have compiled a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 and have met at least one of the following athletic standards: For the indoor season, a student-athlete must have finished the regular season ranked in the national top 96 in an individual event or ranked in the national top 48 (collective listing) in a relay event on the official NCAA POP list provided by TFRRS.org
For the outdoor season, a student-athlete must have participated in any round of the NCAA Division I Championships.
All five qualified for the NCAA West Region Preliminary round, with Fischer competing at the NCAA Championship, in addition to achieving the necessary GPA. Huston and Bell were also winners of the MVC Elite 18 Award, given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA competing at an MVC championship event, during the academic year.
Finally, Huston, Van Leersum and McCann were all MVC Outdoor Champions. Huston won a 5,000 meter championship in her final race at an MVC Championship while Van Leersum captured the men's 400-meter title in his first season as a Bulldogs. McCann followed up his Drake Relays 3,000-meter steeplechase title with an MVC title in the same event. Bell was All-MVC in both the long jump and triple jumps with third place finishes in both events at the 2016 MVC Outdoor Championships.
