2024 CSC Women's Cross Country and Track and Field Academic All-America Teams
As a six-time All-American in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field, Liz Wamsley has a resume that ranks among the very best in Hillsdale College track and field and cross country history.
On Tuesday afternoon, Wamsley's accomplishments helped her join another exclusive club among Chargers track and field athletes. By being named a third team Academic All-American by College Sports Communicators, Wamsley becomes just the fifth Hillsdale College track and field and cross country athlete in the 70-plus year history of the Academic All-America program to receive the honor, joining John Dorsch (1997), Sara Petta (1997), Emily Oren (2016) and Maryssa Depies (2021).
CSC has been running the Academic All-America program since 1952, recognizing the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom in an award where athletes are nominated by their school's Sports Information Directors and are voted on by SIDs from around the country.
Wamsley has been stellar across every season for the Chargers since joining Hillsdale as a freshman in the fall of 2020. Over her career, Wamsley was an All-American twice in cross country, with an 11th place finish in the nation in the 6K as a senior in 2023 (20:04.50), a two-time All-American in the 10K at the NCAA DII Outdoor Track and Field Championships, finishing in seventh place in both 2023 and 2024, and earned one All-American honor each in the indoor and outdoor 5K races in her career.
During her time at Hillsdale, Wamsley qualified for three NCAA DII Cross Country Championship meets, and was a seven-time national meet qualifier in indoor and outdoor track and field, and was a dominant force in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, winning four conference titles, including the 2023 individual cross country championship, and placing 17 times in G-MAC events. She was named the conference's Cross Country Athlete of the Year in 2023, and also the G-MAC Track and Field Freshman of the Year for the 2021-22 indoor season.
This past fall, Wamsley became the first Hillsdale College runner since Emily Oren in 2015 to win the NCAA DII Midwest Regional crown in cross country, an impressive and rare accomplishment in the annals of Hillsdale history.
Not only an elite runner, Wamsley also was an excellent student, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a degree in English from Hillsdale this past spring while being named Academic All-G-MAC four times, a USTFCCCA Academic All-American three times, and ADA All-Academic three times as well.
Wamsley is one of five G-MAC athletes to earn Academic All-American honors from CSC, including two first team honorees and three earning third-team recognition.