RICHARDSON, Texas – Abilene Christian's Erik Forrister, Parker Petty and Matthew Stark Wednesday were named to the 2012 Lone Star Conference Men's Track & Field All-Academic Team.
To be eligible for LSC academic honors, student-athletes must carry at least a 3.30 grade point average and have reached sophomore status both athletically and academically. The Academic Player of Year award and All-Academic Team are selected from the list of academically qualified players, with the league's sports information directors voting on the basis of both academic and athletic achievement.
Joining the ACU trio on the men's all-academic team were Academic Player of the Year Howard Gill of Incarnate Word and fellow Cardinal Adan Narvaez, Texas A&M-Commerce's Alex Kimp and Hank Smith, Texas A&M-Kingsville's Dylan Riedesel, Angelo State's Clinton Bippert and Ethan West and West Texas A&M's Dane Hamrick.
A physics major from Llano, Texas, Forrister was selected as the Lone Star Conference Academic Cross Country Runner for 2011and finished 16th in the individual XC standings with a season best 8K of 26:25. Forrister currently owns ACU's fastest time of the spring in the 3,000-meter run (8:58.01).
An information technology major from White Deer, Texas, Petty earned 2012 NCAA All-America honors after placing seventh indoors in the heptathlon with 5,032 points, and is the defending conference champion in the decathlon. Petty also was named to the Lone Star Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll for the 2010-11 academic year.
An accounting major from Abilene, Stark also was named to last year's Honor Roll and was a decathlon bronze medalist with 5,992 points. This year he has placed fifth in the decathlon at the 2012 Angelo State Invitational with 6,103 points, and was third in the heptathlon at the Lone Star Conference Invitational with 4,315 points.
The Lone Star Conference Championships begin Thursday afternoon at Texas A&M-Commerce Memorial Stadium.
