July 27, 2018
By Matt Paras
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced on Thursday that 11 Irish student-athletes were named to its All-Academic Team. It is the second straight year that the Irish landed 11 athletes on the All-Academic Team.
Notre Dame graduate students Jacob Dumford, Indi Jackson, Nathan Richartz, senior Jessica Harris, juniors Matthew Birzer, Rachel DaDamio, Kelly Hart, Annie Heffernan, Anna Rohrer and freshmen Yared Nuguse and Rachel Tanczos were selected to the team. Tanczos and Nuguse were the first Irish freshmen to be selected for the All-Academic team since DaDamio and Birzer after the 2016 season.
In order to be named to the team, student-athletes must achieve at least a 3.0 GPA and compete in the track and field postseason.
On Wednesday, the Irish men’s and women’s track and field teams received USTFCCCA All-Academic Team honors. In order to be named a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team, a program must compete at the respective national championship meet and have at least a 3.00 cumulative team GPA.
For more on the Irish track and field program, follow @NDXCTF on Twitter.
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Matt Paras, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since January 2018. In his role, he coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame women’s lacrosse and cross country/track & field programs. A native of Warwick, Rhode Island, Paras is a graduate of the University of Louisville where he completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sport Administration. Prior to arriving at Notre Dame, he worked at Vanderbilt University as the sports information contact for the women’s soccer and lacrosse programs.