NEW ORLEANS—Women's cross country sophomore Lydia Olivere (Wilmington, Del.) and senior Ann Campbell (Mission Hills, Kan.) were each named to the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic Team in an announcement made by the organization last week.  Olivere and Campbell earned the distinction for their success in competition during cross country season in addition to their academic achievement. 
 
Olivere was named the Mid-Atlantic Region Women's Athlete of the Year after sweeping the BIG EAST and NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional individual titles last fall.  She went on to earn All-America honors with a 29^th place individual finish at the NCAA Championships, an improvement of 149 spots from where she placed as a freshman one year earlier.  Olivere won three of her five starts during the season and recorded personal best times on both 6,000-meter and three-mile courses.
 
In her final season of collegiate eligibility, Campbell was one of the Wildcats top performers in the fall.  She was one of Villanova's top three finishers in all six meets of the year and earned Mid-Atlantic All-Region honors for the first time in her career.  Campbell tallied the best finishes of her career at all three postseason meets, including the BIG EAST Championships (third), NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional (fourth) and the NCAA Championships (111^th).  Her finish at nationals was 51 spots higher than her best previous finish at the meet. 
 
Student-athletes are named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team for cross country by maintaining at least a 3.25 cumulative GPA and earning either all-region and/or All-America honors.  This is the seventh straight year that the Wildcats have had multiple all-academic team selections for the cross country season.
 
Olivere was also named to the team as a freshman last year in both cross country and on the track.  In recognition of her accomplishments during the fall, she was chosen as Villanova's Office of Academic Support Student-Athlete of the Month presented by Rothman Orthopaedics for the month of November.  She was also the Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Performer of the Year in women's cross country and earned a spot on the Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Team.  Olivere has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll in each of her three collegiate semesters and was selected to the BIG EAST All-Academic Team for the 2018-19 academic year.
 
Campbell earned all-region honors in cross country this season to qualify for the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team for the first time in her career.  The Nursing major has previously been a four-time honoree on the BIG EAST All-Academic Team and has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll in each of the past five semesters. 
 
Villanova earned a team academic award from the USTFCCCA for having a team GPA above a 3.0 for the fall semester.  Led by one of their youngest teams in recent memory – four freshmen competed in the top six of the lineup throughout the fall – the Wildcats finished second at both the BIG EAST Championships and the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional while earning a team berth to the NCAA Championships for the fifth straight year and the 11^th time in the past 12 seasons.