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BUFFALO, NY - University at Buffalo seniors Jenny Koeppel (Amherst, NY/Amherst) and Faith Thompson (Niagara Falls, NY/Niagara Falls) have both been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District I Women's Cross Country/Track and Field First Team, as chosen by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Koeppel and Thompson now advance to the national ballot for a chance to earn Academic All-America honors. The women's cross country/track and field ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Team will be released on June 23.

Jenny Koeppel

Koeppel completed her successful four-year cross country career by winning the 2004 Mid-American Conference title in a time of 17:51.70 and becoming the first women's cross country runner to compete at the NCAA Cross Country Championship in UB's Division I history. Koeppel earned All-Northeast honors for the second straight year with a ninth-place finish at the regional meet and then went on to finish 56th at the national meet in a field of 250 runners. The cross country title was the second MAC title of Koeppel's career. She also won the 10,000-meter title at the 2004 MAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Koeppel carries a 3.664 grade point average as a mathematics major. She was an Academic All-MAC selection in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track in 2004-05. She was also the recipient of the SUNY Chancellor's Scholar-Athlete Award for women's cross country and UB's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2004-05.

Faith Thompson

Thompson will make her first appearance at the NCAA Championships later this week when she competes in the hammer throw on Thursday, June 9 after finishing third in the event at the NCAA East Regional meet on May 27. Thompson holds four school records (indoor shot put, indoor 20-pound weight throw, outdoor shot put, outdoor hammer), and she won MAC titles in the indoor weight throw and outdoor hammer in 2004-05. Thompson holds an undergraduate degree in psychology (3.973 GPA) and is pursuing a master's degree in school counseling (4.0 GPA). She was the recipient of the 2004-05 SUNY Chancellor's Scholar-Athlete Award for women's track and field and an Academic All-MAC selection in both indoor and outdoor track. Thompson is now a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-District I honoree. She earned first-team honors in 2002-03 and second-team honors in 2001-02.

Four other UB student-athletes have earned Academic All-District I honors in 2004-05. Junior defensive linemen Bill Meholif (Parma, OH/St. Ignatius) and Aaron Sanders (Clarence, NY/St. Joseph's) were both chosen to the football Academic All-District I First Team, and swimmer Jennefer Brankovsky (Toronto, Ontario/Don Mills) was named to the Academic All-District I Women's At-Large Second Team. Senior Turner Battle (Kernersville, NC/East Forsyth) was named to the men's basketball Academic All-District I First Team before going on to earn Academic All-America Second Team honors. Battle is only the second UB student-athlete in the Division I era to be named an Academic All-American. Former football player Dan Poulsen earned the distinction in 1998.