TicketsJune 21, 2012
CINCINNATI - University of Cincinnati senior Eric Finan (New Richmond, Ohio/New Richmond) was named to the 2012 Capital One Academic All-America® Division I Men's and Women's Track & Field/Cross Country Teams, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Thursday.
Finan is UC's 11th First-Team Academic All-American and the first since volleyball player Julie DuPont in 2004. The last member of the track and field squad to earn the honor was Scott Keane in 1996.
Finan was the 2012 American Eagle Outfitters BIG EAST Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year and earned all-America status in both cross country and track & field during his career after he finished 10th in the 5,000-meter run at the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships and was 25th at the 2011 NCAA Cross Country Championships. He was the 2011 BIG EAST cross country champion and was the runner-up at the 2011 NCAA Great Lakes Regional after winning that event in 2010 and won a BIG EAST title in the 5,000 at last year's outdoor track & field championship.
He holds school records in the indoor 3,000 and 5,000 events and is the outdoor record-holder in the 5,000 and 10,000. He finished as Cincinnati's top cross country finisher in every race since the start of the 2009 season.
Finan, who holds a 3.785 grade-point average in Cincinnati's master of business administration program, earned an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering with a 3.897 GPA. He was the recipient of Cincinnati's Legion of Excellence Award, as the student-athlete with the highest grade-point average on his team and was admitted to the College of Engineering's Accend program, a joint undergraduate and graduate program for the most academically qualified engineering majors.
He has been on the dean's list for every academic quarter he has attended UC (2007-present) and was a BIG EAST Academic All-Star in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Finan was the student president of Cincinnati's Athletes in Action program and served as vice-president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. He is a member of the Sigma Sigma honorary fraternity and has been active with a number of community service efforts.
About the Academic All-America® Program To be eligible for Academic All-America® consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.
Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 15,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.
For more information about the Academic All-America® Teams program, please visit www.cosida.com.