(Portions of this release courtesy of MIT and WPI Athletic Communications)

The 2024-2025 Academic All-America Men's Track & Field/Cross Country teams, selected by College Sports Communicators (CSC) were announced in July, with five from the NEWMAC garnering the accolade. 

MIT senior Pablo Arroyo (Richardson, Texas) and junior Jackson Bliey (Talleyville, Del.) each earned a spot on the first team. MIT senior Ziyad Hassan (Ashburn, Va.) was named to the second team while MIT senior Walter Truitt (Houston, Texas) and WPI graduate student Avinash Bissoondial (Millbury, Mass.) were named to the third team. The honor is the first for each student-athlete.

Eleven honorees on the Academic All-America® Division III men's track & field/cross country teams boast a perfect 4.0 GPA in their undergraduate work or graduate school. The 16-man first team has an average undergraduate GPA of 3.92, with the entire 46-man team combining for a collective 3.84 undergraduate GPA.

Arroyo, an aeronautics and astronautics major, was one of eleven members of the Division III Academic All-American team sporting a perfect GPA. After earning NEWMAC All-Conference and USTFCCCA All-Region honors during cross country season, Arroyo went on to earn USTFCCCA All-Region accolades in the 3,000m Steeplechase during the outdoor season. He appeared in the NCAA Championships in both indoor and outdoor track and field as well as during the country season. Off the track, he was an MIT HAUS Research Assistant, as well as a Teaching Assistant and a member of the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program.

Bliey, a computer Science and engineering major, was the top high jumper in Division III last year, winning both the indoor and outdoor national championships at this year's NCAA Championships. Her took home the NEWMAC title en route to All-Region and All-America honors while winning his third consecutive high jump championship. In addition to his coursework, he also performed research in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

Hassan, a computer science and engineering major, earned All-Region and All-America Second Team accolades in the 800m, concluding a year that also included a spot on the NEWMAC All-Conference team during the cross country season. On campus, Hassan was a student researcher in CSAIL while earning internships with Google, Amazon Web Services, and Uber, while actively involved in both ColorStack and the National Society of Black Engineers.

Truitt, an electrical engineering and computer science major who is pursuing his master's in electrical engineering and computer science, qualified for outdoor nationals after earning multiple NEWMAC Athlete of the Week honors and the NEWMAC 110m hurdle title. He finished the outdoor season as a USTFCCCA All-Region honoree. A team captain for the Engineers, Truitt has published a paper in the Journal of Transport Geography and has earned internships with Apple and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

Bissoondial earned First Team All-America honors in the 5,000-meter run at the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, placing eighth nationally, and also claimed the NEWMAC titles in both the 1,500 and 5,000 meters and holds school records in the outdoor 5,000 meters (14:09.22) and indoor mile (4:11.61). A two-time NCAA Cross Country qualifier, he finished third at the NCAA East Region Championship and 60th at the NCAA National Championships this past fall. In the classroom, Bissoondial has matched his athletic achievements with academic excellence, maintaining a perfect 4.00 GPA as a Data Science graduate student. He is a seven-time NEWMAC Academic All-Conference honoree across cross country, indoor, and outdoor track & field, and this year marked his second consecutive CSC Academic All-District selection en route to his first All-America honor.
 
About the NEWMAC

The NEWMAC is an association of 12 selective academic institutions: Babson College, Clark University, U.S Coast Guard Academy, Emerson College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mount Holyoke College, Salve Regina University, Smith College, Springfield College, Wellesley College, Wheaton College, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, that are committed to providing high quality competitive athletic opportunities for student-athletes within an educational and respectful environment that embodies the NCAA Division III Philosophy. The conference also partners with four Associate Members: Norwich University (Football), Simmons College (Rowing), SUNY Maritime College (Football), and U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (Football), while sponsoring 20 sports.