CSC Track & Field / Cross Country Academic All-District Teams
 
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Eight members of the Slippery Rock University cross country and track and field programs were recognized Wednesday when the College Sports Communicators announced the Academic All-District teams for 2022-23.
 
The Rock women are represented by Marianne Abdalah, Anna Igims, Sarah Corrie, Kendall Grossman and Tiffany Jolayemi, while the SRU men are represented by Ethan Brentham, Bryan Dworek and Joshua Gose.
 
To be eligible for a nomination to the Academic All-America program, student-athletes must be at least sophomores in academic and athletic standing, must own a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher, must appear in at least 50 percent of their team's contests and should have significant athletic credentials. Performances from the cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field seasons are all considered and schools are limited to no more than five nominees. Athletes on the Academic All-District team automatically advance to the Academic All-America ballot this year.
 
A brief look at each of the SRU honorees can be found below. The Academic All-America teams will be announced by CSC June 28 (women) and June 29 (men).
 
MARIANNE ABDALAH
Abdalah is the lone repeat honoree of the eight Slippery Rock selections after she also earned Academic All-District and Academic All-America honors in 2022. A second-year graduate student from Wexford, Pennsylvania, Abdalah owns a perfect 4.0 GPA after 79.5 credit hours in the SRU physician's assistant graduate program. She earned her undergraduate degree in biology from West Virginia University with a 3.96 GPA before enrolling at SRU for the physician's assistant program.
 
In addition to her efforts in the classroom, Abdalah has been one of the top athletes at SRU over the last two years. Last fall, she earned her second straight first team All-PSAC and All-Region honors in cross country and qualified as an individual for the National Championships for the second year in a row. She did not have indoor eligibility remaining, but returned this spring for the outdoor season, where she scored for SRU in both the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter runs at the PSAC Championships, helping SRU to a team title.
 
ANNA IGIMS
Igims, a junior from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, put together a stellar third year at Slippery Rock that began with All-PSAC and All-Region honors in cross country during the fall and continued through both track seasons. She scored in three events at the PSAC indoor meet and picked up All-Region honors in the 3,000-meter run indoor. Igims followed that up with an even better outdoor campaign, breaking the SRU record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (10:39.07) and winning her first PSAC individual title in the event. She qualified for nationals and finished 15th in her national debut. She also took second at the PSAC meet in both the 1,500-meter run and the 5,000-meter run to score 26 individual points for SRU, accounting for 18.5 percent of the team's winning total. She was named to All-Region honors in all three events outdoor to give her a total of five All-Region awards in 2022-23.
 
In the classroom, Igims owns a 3.972 GPA after 110 credit hours while majoring in school wellness education with a minor in public health.
 
SARAH CORRIE
Corrie, a senior from Monroeville, Pennsylvania, finished her first semester of graduate work in the SRU public health master's program this spring with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She already graduated from SRU with her undergraduate degree in safety management with a 3.568 GPA after 125 credit hours.
 
In 2022-23, Corrie established herself as the best shot putter in the Atlantic Region and asserted herself as the top shot put thrower in the PSAC by sweeping both conference titles. She earned All-Region honors in both the indoor and outdoor seasons and qualified for the indoor National Championships, where she placed 16th in her debut trip to a national meet. She followed that up outdoor by claiming a league title on her home turf and ranking 21st in Division II in the shot put this spring, missing the nationals cutoff by just one place. Corrie finished the year with a career-best throw of 14.59 meters (47' 10 ½") in the shot put.
 
KENDALL GROSSMAN
Grossman, a junior from West Sunbury, Pennsylvania, capped her third year at SRU with a pair of All-Region honors in the pole vault that also included a pair of All-PSAC finishes in the event. She won the 2022-23 PSAC indoor title to pick up her first career title and followed that up with a runner-up showing at the PSAC outdoor meet this spring. Grossman improved her career-best in the pole vault to 3.84 meters (12' 7 ¼") in 2023.
 
In the classroom, Grossman owns a 3.896 GPA after 106 credit hours while majoring in petroleum and natural gas engineering. She also carries a minor in mathematics.
 
TIFFANY JOLAYEMI
Jolayemi, a senior from Murrysville, Pennsylvania, continues to add to her impressive list of academic honors. She was named the PSAC Champion Scholar Award winner at the PSAC outdoor meet for owning the highest GPA among all athletes competing. That GPA is a perfect 4.0 after an incredible 148 credit hours while majoring in industrial and systems engineering. A standout in the engineering program at SRU, Jolayemi was part of a small research group of students in 2021 that earned a $25,000 grant from NASA to build and test a cryogenic atomic force microscope system that was intended to analyze particles on interplanetary surfaces.
 
She also has the athletic credentials to back up her academic excellence. In 2022-23, Jolayemi earned a pair of All-Region honors for the weight throw indoor and the hammer throw outdoor, with the highlight coming during this spring when she broke the SRU record in the hammer throw with a toss of 54.20 meters (177' 10"). She also earned All-PSAC honors in the discus at the outdoor championships with a career-best of 41.46 meters (136' 0").
 
ETHAN BRENTHAM
Brentham, a senior from Brookville, Pennsylvania, was the 2022-23 PSAC Champion Scholar winner at the indoor conference meet for owning the highest GPA among all athletes competing. He closed his undergraduate career with a perfect 4.0 GPA after 143 credit hours in the school wellness education program while also minoring in coaching. For his academic excellence, Brentham was asked to serve as the University flag bearer at the SRU commencement ceremony this spring.
 
In addition to his academic excellence, Brentham is also one of the top distance runners in the region. He showed that again last fall when he picked up first team All-PSAC honors and All-Region honors in cross country for his second straight year of earning both those awards. He qualified for both the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter runs at the PSAC indoor meet and qualified in the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter runs at the PSAC outdoor meet. Brentham scored for SRU in the 10,000m with a fifth place finish after running a career-best 31:56.89 at the conference meet this spring.
 
BRYAN DWOREK
Dworek, a senior from Brookville, Pennsylvania, won the 2022-23 PSAC indoor title in the long jump by breaking his own SRU record that he had set earlier in the same season. He finished the year with three jumps that would have broke the former record and set a new SRU-best at 7.46 meters (25' 5 ¾"). That effort earned him an entry into the indoor national meet, where he took 11th place and picked up a second team All-America honor in his debut appearance at a National Championship. He was poised to make another run at the national meet outdoor before a mid-season injury sidelined him for most of the second half of the season. Still, he competed at the PSAC meet in the spring and took sixth in the long jump to help SRU to a second place finish in the team standings.
 
Dworek recently graduated from SRU with a degree in physical activity and fitness management with a 3.77 GPA after 139 credit hours.
 
JOSHUA GOSE
Gose, a junior from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, owns a perfect 4.0 GPA after 94 credits as a finance major at The Rock.
 
In addition to his academic excellence, Gose has established himself as one of the top shot put throwers in the Atlantic Region, earning All-Region honors in every season he has been on the team at SRU with back-to-back indoor and outdoor awards. A three-time PSAC runner-up and a four-time All-PSAC honoree in the event, Gose took second indoor in 2022-23 and third outdoor at the conference meets, both with NCAA provisional marks. His top throw of 17.22 meters (56' 6") ranked 28th nationally this spring and just missed the cutoff for the National Championships. He also placed seventh in the discus for SRU at the PSAC meet this spring.
 
 

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