Blood, Chapa, Wall Named ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District 8
EUGENE, Ore. ? Pac-10 and NCAA West Regional 5,000 meter champion Nicole Blood led a trio of Ducks who were named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District 8 track & field/cross country teams by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Thursday.
Blood was named to the District 8 first team. She was joined by senior Joaquin Chapa and junior Scott Wall, who were second team selections for the men.
A sophomore with a 3.59 grade point average in journalism, Blood is an automatic qualifier for next week’s NCAA Championships, June 11-14 at Des Moines, Iowa. She ranks third nationally in the 5,000 (15:43.73) and fifth in the 1,500 meters (4:14.73); both of those marks meet the "B" standard for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials.
Her win in the 5,000, plus a fourth-place finish in the Pac-10’s 1,500 meters, earned 15 team points to lead Oregon to a third-place conference finish, its best in 12 years. She was named Pac-10 athlete of the week twice in 2008.
In cross country, Blood earned All-America honors with her eighth-place finish at the NCAA meet, leading Oregon to a national runner-up team finish. She placed second at the NCAA West Regional, fourth at the Pac-10 meet and won the Bill Dellinger invitational to highlight a successful cross country campaign.
As a first team selection, Blood advances on to the national academic All-America ballot, which will be announced on June 25.
NCAA West Regional qualifiers Chapa and Wall both helped Oregon capture its second consecutive Pac-10 men’s track and field title.
A senior from Portland, Ore., Chapa ran eighth in the 1,500 meters at the Pac-10 championships in a season-best 3:44.90 to earn a point for the Ducks. Chapa is a graduate student in journalism with a 3.90 GPA.
Wall, a junior from Portland, also collected an eighth-place finish for the Ducks -- in the 5,000 meters -- at the Pac-10 meet to earn a team point. He ran a season-best 14:11.12 in the event at the Oregon Relays on April 25.
In the fall, Wall was a member of Oregon’s NCAA championship cross country team, and helped the Ducks win the Pac-10 and NCAA West Regional meets with a pair of top-20 finishes. He was 11th at the Pac-10 meet and 16th at the regional.
Wall has a 3.84 GPA and is majoring in business administration.
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