CSC Release

AUSTIN, Texas – Saint John's University rising senior Cole Stencel (Mapleton, Minn./Maple River) was named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-America cross country/track and field third team on Tuesday, July 14.

Nominees must be a sophomore or older with a 3.5 cumulative GPA or higher. Athletically, nominees must have either finished in the top 50 of their respective NCAA Regional in cross country or achieved a top-50 regional ranking in an individual event in indoor or outdoor track and field.

SJU has now had eight CSC Academic All-Americans in cross country/track and field over the last six seasons.

A physics major with a 3.82 GPA, Stencel became the first Johnnie since 2015-16 to qualify for the NCAA Championship in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor in the same academic year. Stencel was crowned an indoor All-American with an eighth-place time in the mile in March and 16th to earn second-team All-American honors in the 1,500 meters in May. He broke the program's record in the 1,500 meters a week earlier on the same track with a time of 3:47.29. 

Stencel is a five-time MIAC champion, including two each indoors (1,000 meters and mile) and outdoors (1,500 meters and 5,000 meters) this spring. He is an eight-time All-MIAC honoree – one in cross country, three indoors and four outdoors – and has achieved Academic All-MIAC honors four times. Stencel will collect USTFCCCA All-Academic honors in track and field later this summer after achieving the recognition in cross country this past fall.

SJU track and field finished third out of 11 teams at both the 2026 MIAC Indoor and Outdoor Championships. SJU qualified four athletes at the 2026 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships and collected a pair of All-America performances. Stencel was SJU's lone indoor national qualifier, where he became the first Johnnie to earn All-America honors in the mile run.

Stencel's CSC Academic All-America honor is the fifth for SJU during the 2025-26 academic year: Zach Frank '25 (football), Joey Gendreau '26 (football), Jon Howe '26 (hockey) and Dylan Wheeler '26 (football).