USTFCCCA All-American List

Bridgewater State's Joshua Higgins and Matthew Lighten, Westfield State's William Canty and Lauren Gilderdale have earned All-America honors for the 2020 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field season. The All-American student-athletes were announced on Tuesday (May 19) by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Normal policies dictate that All-America honors are awarded to student-athletes who score any portion of a team point (top-eight in the final of an individual event or as a member of a top-eight placing relay event) at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships. In lieu of conduction of the national championship this season, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the USTFCCCA Executive Committee adopted the following criteria based on the selected participants for the national championships initially announced by the NCAA on Sunday, March 8th:

• All student-athletes declared and initially accepted into their individual event.
• Members of all relays who produced the performance that was declared and initially accepted into their event.

Lighten was seeded second in the 200-meter run at the national championship meet. The Dalton, Massachusetts product recorded his qualifying mark of 21.94 seconds at the MASCAC Championships on February 15th.

Higgins, who hails from Fitchburg, Massachusetts, was seeded 20th in the 800-meter run as he was set to make his third appearance at an NCAA Division III Track & Field Championship meet and second at the indoor championships. Higgins posted his qualifying time of 1:53.84 on March 7th at the Tufts Final Qualifying Meet.

Gilderdale will be recognized as a national qualifier in the 20-lb. weight throw, and it is her first All-America honor.  She was recently announced as the Westfield State athletic department's female athlete of the year.

Canty earns All-America honors for the second time, this time as a 2020 national qualifier in the heptathlon.  He was an All-American in the decathlon with a seventh-place finish at the 2020 NCAA Division III outdoor championships last spring.  Canty was recently named as the Westfield State athletic department's John Kurty Award winner for his 4-year success and dedication to Owls' athletics.

A total of 675 athletes from 161 different institutions from across the country were honored on Tuesday by the USTFCCCA.

Release courtesy of Bridgewater State and Westfield State Sports Information