June 22, 2006
Pedersen earns Academic All-America honor
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- Grove City College senior cross country standout Elisa Pedersen (Santa Rosa, Calif./Montgomery) earned College Division Third Team Academic All-America honors for cross country and track and field Thursday morning from ESPN The Magazine and the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
During her career at Grove City, Pedersen twice earned All-America honors at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships. She placed 27th overall in 2005 after finishing 22nd as a junior in 2004. She also earned NCAA All-Mideast Region recognition in each of her four seasons. Pedersen also won the Presidents' Athletic Conference's individual championship in each of her four seasons at Grove City, helping the Wolverines to four straight PAC titles.
Pedersen earned Grove City's Sportswoman of the Year May 6 at the College's Recognition Convocation. She graduated May 20 with a bachelor's degree in accounting and Spanish. She earned Dean's List honors in all eight semesters and made the PAC's Academic Honor Roll four times. Pedersen earned Second Team Academic All-District from CoSIDA in 2005.
Pedersen also earned induction into the Alpha Mu Gamma (foreign language), Delta Mu Delta (business administration) and Operation Top Management (business) honoraries. She graduated with a 3.81 cumulative grade-point average.
Pedersen is the third Grove City student-athlete to earn Academic All-America this spring. Senior baseball player Mike Ritter (Moon Township, Pa./Moon) earned Second Team Academic All-America last month while on Tuesday, junior cross country runner Andrew Leuenberger (West Middlesex, Pa./West Middlesex) earned Third Team honors for cross country/track and field.