Elon Cross Country’s Ciolkowski Receives Academic All-District Accolades

ELON, N.C. – Nick Ciolkowski of the Elon University men’s cross country team was selected to the College of Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District Track & Field/Cross Country Team as announced on Thursday, May 25.

CoSIDA Release

The All-District nod is the first for Ciolkowski in his accomplished two-year career. It’s also the first All-District honor for the Phoenix men’s cross country program since Eric Garren in 2007-08. Ciolkowski is now eligible for the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team ballot, where first, second and third team All-America honorees will be selected later this month.

Ciolkowski, a biochemistry major, was named the Colonial Athletic Association Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Year for the second straight season after successfully defending his league individual title in 2016. He received All-CAA honors for the second time in his career after finishing the CAA Cross Country Championships with a time of 25:08.10 – 13 seconds faster than the runner-up.

He later earned another prestigious league honor as he was selected the 2016 Colonial Athletic Association Men’s Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year. It was the first CAA Scholar-Athlete award for Ciolkowski in his career.

This past spring, Ciolkowski became one of 15 rising juniors that were selected as the recipients of the 2017 Lumen Prize at Elon University. The Lumen Prize is Elon’s premier award that comes with a $15,000 scholarship to support and celebrate academic achievements and research proposals. He became only the second Elon athlete ever to receive the prestigious award.