Geoffrey Carney-Knisely

2018 CoSIDA Div. III Google Cloud Academic All-America® Cross Country and Track & Field Release

The College of Wooster's Geoffrey Carney-Knisely was voted to the Google Cloud Academic All-America® Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America, the organization announced on Tuesday. Carney-Knisely was elevated to the first-team after earning third-team honors last year.

"This is a prestigious award for Geoffrey to receive," said cross country and track & field head coach Dennis Rice. "He's worked extremely hard in and out of the classroom to be honored with this award. He was committed academically and athletically, and its paid off big time for him to receive first-team honors."'

Carney-Knisely's selection marks the sixth time in the last eight years a member of the Fighting Scots' cross country or track & field programs have earned the prestigious recognition. Overall, its the 49th time a Wooster student-athlete has earned one of college athletics' highest academic honors, and Carney-Knisely is the 12th Wooster student-athlete to earn multiple Academic All-America® certificates.

Carney-Knisely, who graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA as a biochemistry & molecular biology and sociology double-major this spring, shared the prestigious Jonas O. Notestein Prize, an award bestowed on the student(s) with the highest academic standing in the class.

Academically, Carney-Knisely's interdisciplinary independent study project evaluated antimicrobial resistance in four foodborne pathogens from organic and conventional Amish farms. Last summer through the College's Applied Methods Research Experience (AMRE), Carney-Knisely worked on a consulting project with the United Way of Wayne and Holmes Counties to measure poverty at a community level, and to understand the feasibility of a community-wide shared data system.

Back home, the South Burlington, Vt. native spent time last summer as a genomic medicine intern at the University of Vermont Medical Center, and he previously worked in the infectious disease epidemiology department at the Vermont Department of Health, where he participated in Center for Disease Control conference calls on Zika virus management.

Athletically, Carney-Knisely played a key role in the men's cross country team's best North Coast Athletic Conference finish since 2013. Wooster, which finished in fourth-place, saw all five of its harriers place in the meet's top-35, and Carney-Knisely was the fourth Scot to cross at 26:43.8.

On the track, Carney-Knisely's top showing came at the Kenyon College Spring Invitational, where the distance specialist navigated the 5000-meter race in 16:59.18 to place eighth.