MEDFORD - Tufts University senior Tara Lowensohn and junior Lia Rotti have been honored nationally for their academic and athletic excellence with their selections to the Academic All-America® Women's Track & Field / Cross Country Teams announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) today.

The award honors the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the track and in the classroom. The CoSIDA Academic All-America® program separately names honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA. Both Lowensohn and Rotti are on the second team out of three teams that were released overall. Tufts is the only New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) school, and one of just two in New England, to place two student-athletes on the top two 2021-22 Academic All-America® Women's Track & Field / Cross Country teams.

Lowensohn graduated in May with a perfect 4.0 grade point average as a biochemistry major. Rotti has been close to perfect as well with a 3.97 grade point average as an applied mathematics major. Both have also been significant contributors to head coach Kristen Morwick's Jumbo cross country and track & field teams.

This marks the third time in recent years that Tufts women's track & field and cross country student-athletes have been on the Academic All‐America® Team. Melissa Rowland was honored last year, and Natalie Bettez was selected for 2019.

Rotti, who comes from Danville, Vt., has also worked as an undergraduate researcher and as a mathematical modeling course grader for Tufts' Department of Mathematics. She was the 2022 NCAA Indoor Champion in the triple jump with school-record 12.40m (40'8 1/4") distance. She was also sixh at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Meet for the third All-American honor of her areer. The New England indoor triple jump champ for Division III this year, she also won the event at the NESCAC Championship outdoors in addition to placing third in three other events at the conference meet. She placed fifth in the triple jump at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Meet and won the indoor long jump at the 2020 New England Division III meet before the remainder of the season was canceled due to Covid.

Lowensohn was awarded highest honors for her senior thesis in chemistry, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 2022. For next year she has been accepted to Stanford University where she will be pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry. A track co-captain, she was part of the team's 2022 New England DIII 4x800 relay champions outdoors. Lowensohn was also nationally ranked 35th in the 1,500 meters outdoors this season. Back in the fall, she scored for the Tufts Cross Country team that finished ninth at the 2022 NCAA Championship Race. Earlier in her career, she was a 2021 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field qualifier in the 1,500 meters and placed 16th. She was also the runner-up in the 1,000 at the New England DIII Indoor Championships in 2020.

Tufts had seven CoSIDA Academic All-America® honorees for 2021-22, its most ever. Also awarded were Travis Van Brewer and Mati Cano in soccer, Cate Desler in volleyball, Claire Brennan in swimming and Isaac Gorelik in tennis. 

> 2021-22 Academic All-America® Women's Track & Field / Cross Country Teams