COLCHESTER, Vt. - Saint Michael's College women's cross country junior Fran Peterson (Barron, Wis./Barron) was introduced as a Northeast 10 Conference Elite 24 Award winner on Sunday after the NE10 Championship at Saint Anselm College.
 
The Elite 24 Award honors student-athletes with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at a finals site. She is the third Purple Knight cross country runner in as many years to earn the accolade, after Katie Culliton '24 and Swapnil Jhajharia '24 swept the 2023 awards.
 
Peterson, a biology major carrying a 4.0 GPA, earned her third career NE10 All-Conference first team honor on Sunday, finishing as NE10 Championship runner-up for her program's top individual finish at a league meet since 1986. Only she and Merrimack College's Katherine Ferrara (2018) have landed all-conference and Elite 24 since the latter accolade was established in 2018. Peterson is a two-time U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) East Regional All-Region honoree and owns 10 career national and conference academic accolades from the USTFCCCA, NE10, College Sports Communicators, and Division 2 Athletics Directors Association (D2 ADA). Also a Nordic skier at Saint Michael's, Peterson had landed an additional pair of United States Collegiate Ski Coaches Association (USCSCA) National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team nods.
 
Peterson brings the number of Saint Michael's Elite 24 Award winners to eight since the laurel was established for the 2018-19 school year, and three in the last two years alone. Current seniors Ashley Silveira (women's swimming & diving) and Nick Wracker (men's ice hockey) were recognized in 2024-25.