NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Junior Danny Kilrea has been selected as the ACC Men’s Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year, as announced by the conference on Tuesday. The Notre Dame Cross Country team had eight athletes selected to the All-ACC Academic Cross Country Team.
Kilrea, a junior from LaGrange, Illinois, placed 10th at this year’s NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma, leading the Fighting Irish to a second-place team finish. He crossed the line on the 10K course at 30:11.5 to become the best Notre Dame individual finisher since Patrick Smyth placed 10th at the 2008 championships.
Kilrea also finished seventh at the ACC Cross Country Championships with an 8K time of 23:27.4 as Notre Dame placed first as a team last October, and he took ninth place at the Silver State Collegiate Challenge in early February.
After earning both first-team All-ACC and All-America honors, Kilrea was named the USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Male Athlete of the Year for Cross Country. The All-ACC and All-America accolades are the second for Kilrea, a five-time Dean’s List student who owns a 3.95 career GPA while majoring in finance.
Notre Dame placed five on the men’s team, while three were represented on the women’s side. The five Irish men’s selections were tied for the most of any team in the conference on the men’s side.
Andrew Alexander, Dylan Jacobs, Danny Kilrea, Josh Methner and Yared Nuguse represented the men while Erin Archibeck, Maddy Denner and Olivia Markezich were selected for the women following their performances this past season season on and off the course.
Minimum academic requirements for selection to the All-ACC Academic Team are a 3.0 grade point average for the previous semester and a 3.0 cumulative average during one’s academic career. Athletic achievements during the most recent season are also considered in selecting the All-ACC Academic Team.
The ACC Honor Roll, which recognizes all conference student-athletes with a grade point average of 3.0 for the current academic year, will be released in July.
For more on the Irish Cross Country programs, follow @NDXCTF on Twitter and Instagram.