Mancl Earns First Team CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII Recognition
By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications
SALEM, Ore. -- Willamette University student-athlete Olivia Mancl (Sr., Seattle, WA/Roosevelt HS) has been chosen First Team CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII for 2016-17 in the women's track and field/cross country category for NCAA Division III, as chosen by the College Sports Information Directors of America. As a First Team Academic All-District selection, Mancl is eligible for the 2016-17 CoSIDA NCAA Division III Academic All-America Team, which will be released this summer.
A total of 10 athletes were named to the Academic All-District VIII Team. Mancl was the only athletes chosen from the Northwest Conference.
CoSIDA District VIII includes colleges and universities in the western United States. Athletes nominated for the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team were starters or key reserves with cumulative grade point averages of 3.3 or higher (4.0 scale). Each athlete was at her current college or university for at least one academic year.
First Team CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII
Olivia Mancl (Sr.) earned All-America honors in cross country for the second year in a row this past fall, as she placed 13th at the 2016 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships. She attained a second place finish at the NCAA Championships in 2015. She competed at the NCAA Championships all four years.
In addition, Mancl won her second consecutive Northwest Conference individual cross country title in 2016 after also taking first place in 2015. She was second in 2014 and finished seventh in 2013.
Prior to the spring semester, Mancl owned a 3.74 cumulative GPA. She recently graduated from Willamette with a major in Biology. She also completed a minor in Environmental and Earth Science.
During her Willamette career, Mancl helped the Bearcats win the NWC women's cross country team title in 2013 and 2014 as well as NCAA West Region team championships in 2014 and 2015. She placed second at the West Regional as a junior and a senior, was third as a sophomore and took ninth place as a freshman.
Her career-best time over a 6-kilometer cross country course was 20:53.8 on her way to winning the 2016 NWC title. She is second on Willamette's all-time 6-kilometer list behind two-time national champion Sarah Zerzan ('08), who holds the record at 20:32.7.
In track and field, Mancl finished ninth in the 1,500-meter run in 2015. She placed 19th in the 5,000-meter run in 2016.
Mancl earned a personal record of 4:30.85 in the 1,500 at the San Francisco Distance Carnival on April 1, 2016 and set a personal record at 16:46.99 in the 5,000 at the Willamette Invitational on March 26, 2016. She is second all-time at Willamette in the 5,000 and is third in the 1,500. She holds 10th on WU's all-time list in the 800-meter run at 2:15.75.