CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - The Patriot League announced its 2018 Academic All-Patriot League Cross Country Teams on Friday with 14 combined recipients, seven for each of the male and female divisions. The Navy cross country program garnered three positions with Kevin Murray (Jr., Wilmington, Del.) and Jake Brophy (Jr., New Hope, Pa.) representing the men's team and Erin McDonnell (Sr., Traverse City, Mich.), the women's squad. The trio of standouts in competition and in the classroom are all now two-time honorees as Brophy and Murray collected this accolade in 2017, while McDonnell was recognized in 2016.

Murray, the 2017 Patriot League Men's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year was in lead consideration again this year with a title-winning performance at the 2018 Patriot League Championship this past Saturday. Clocking in at 25:27.5 and clearing the 112-man field by 8.5 seconds, Murray earned his third All-Patriot League competition award in three years as he previous was a first team honoree in 2017 and a second team honoree in 2016. During the regular season, he finished in the top-15 in all four of the Mids' varsity races. In the classroom, the mechanical engineering major has a 3.60 GPA.

Brophy joins his classmate as one of the top talents in the Patriot League on the trails and in the classroom for the second straight year. At last Saturday's league championship, Brophy came in 15th place with a time of 26:31.6. On the hunt for his third consecutive All-Patriot League award, he missed the second team cut off by one position and 3.7 seconds. Prior to 2018, he earned All-Patriot League Second Team accolades in 2016 and 2017. A top-seven finisher in all four of Navy's races: the Spiked Shoe Invitational (6th), Navy Invitational (1st), Roy Griak Invitational (7th) and Army-Navy Star Meet (2nd), Brophy is a computer science major with a 3.83 GPA. He earned a spot on the CoSIDA Academic All-District Men's Track & Field/Cross Country First Team during the 2017-18 school year.
 
This is the seventh time in program history that Navy has had multiple honorees on the All-Academic Patriot League Men's Cross Country Team. The award has been in existence since 2010.

A 2016 Academic All-Patriot League honoree, McDonnell is back amongst the league's best student-athletes after injuries curtailed her 2017 cross country campaign. This fall, the Mids' team captain was a top-five scorer for Navy in all five of its regular season races with the Spiked Shoe Invitational standing out for her as she was the team's third scorer in 53rd place overall. An oceanography (honors) major, McDonnell has recorded a GPA of 3.63 over her first six semesters at the Naval Academy. Her best Patriot League Championship performance came as a freshman in 2015 when she placed seventh and was honored as the Rookie of the Meet.

McDonnell joins Brigid Byrne (2010-'11-'12), Annie-Norah Beveridge (2012-'13) and Morgan O'Connor (2014-'15) as multi-year Academic All-Patriot League honorees.

To be eligible for the Scholar-Athlete of the Year award and the Academic All-Patriot League Team, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average and be a starter or key player in his/her sport. Freshmen or students in their first academic year at their school are not eligible for the honor.

The Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year for each individual sport comprises the pool of nominees for the Corvias Patriot League Male and Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards given out over the summer. One male and one female are selected for this honor.

Both Navy teams will continue postseason action next Friday, Nov. 9 with the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship in University Park, Pa. on the campus of Penn State University. The Mids will be racing for a spot in the 2018 NCAA Championship beginning at 12:00 p.m.
 
Patriot League Men's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Benjamin Petrella, Jr., Army West Point
Patriot League Women's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Colleen Buckley, Sr., Bucknell
  
Men's 2018 Cross Country Academic All-Patriot League Team
Matthew Rainey, Sr., American
Benjamin Petrella, Jr., Army West Point
Alexander Seal, Sr., Boston University
Chad Sussman, Sr., Bucknell
Jeffrey Kirshenbaum, Jr., Lehigh
Jake Brophy, Jr., Navy
Kevin Murray, Jr., Navy
 
Women's 2018 Cross Country Academic All-Patriot League Team
Mika Andrews, So., Army West Point
Kajol Maheshwari, Jr., Army West Point
Colleen Buckley, Sr., Bucknell
Jenna Farmer, Jr., Bucknell
Jenna Gasparrini, Jr., Holy Cross
Diana Hammerstone, Jr., Lehigh
Erin McDonnell, Sr., Navy

(Listed alphabetically by school)