COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College women's cross country program earned the Northeast 10 Conference Team Academic Excellence Award for its sport for the 2024-25 school year after posting the highest cumulative grade-point average among women's cross country squads in the league. The Purple Knights earned the award for the third consecutive school year.
 
Under 19th-year head coach Molly Peters, the Purple Knights tallied a 3.834 GPA behind 12 members of the program landing on the NE10 Academic Honor Roll, necessitating a 3.0 term, both semesters last school year. The Purple Knights' 3.834 GPA was second-best among the NE10's 24 Team Academic Excellence Award winners across all sports, short only of Adelphi University women's tennis (3.837), after placing third the prior two years.
 
Rising junior Fran Peterson (Barron, Wis./Barron) and rising sophomore Jersey Miller (Minneapolis, Minn./Saint Louis Park) highlighted the 2024 season by both landing U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) East Regional All-Region and NE10 All-Conference first team nods. Miller was named NE10 Rookie of the Year after placing sixth at the NE10 Championship and 15th during the NCAA East Regional Championship. Peterson finished seventh and 11th, respectively.
 
Miller, Peterson and rising junior Kennedy Holsapple (East Lyme, Conn./East Lyme) qualified for USTFCCCA All-Academic accolades, while Peterson, May graduate Izzy Quam (Stillwater, Minn./Mounds Park Academy) and rising junior Meredith Reilly (Ashland, Mass./Ashland) were all named NE10 Academic All-Conference. The team also earned a USTFCCCA All-Academic citation.
 
The NE10 Team Academic Excellence Award is bestowed upon teams with the top GPA among each of the league's 24 sponsored sports. In all, 82.7% of the programs in the conference accumulated at least a 3.0 GPA in 2024-25. Fifteen Saint Michael's programs that compete in the NE10 registered 3.0 GPAs, as did each of the three that do not: women's ice hockey, Alpine skiing and Nordic skiing.