AUSTIN, Texas – Four members of the national champion MIT women's cross country and track and field teams have been named to the 2024-25 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-America Team.

Graduate student Gillian Roeder (Delmar, N.Y.) and junior Hailey Surace (Snohomish, Wash.) each earned a spot on the first team, while senior Alexis Boykin (Clayton, Ohio) was named to the second team and junior Kate Sanderson (West Hartford, Conn.) earned a spot on the third team. The honor is the first for Surace, Boykin and Sanderson, while Roeder was also a member of the Academic All-America Second Team in 2023. Both Roeder and Surace were two of the 18 Division III honorees to earn a perfect GPA.

Roeder, a mechanical engineering major, was a NEWMAC All-Conference and USTFCCCA All-Region honoree during cross country season, as MIT captured its first NCAA title. She went on to claim USTFCCCA All-Region and a pair of All-America honors in the Mile and the 3,000m at indoor nationals before finishing the season as an All-Conference, All-Region and All-American performer on the outdoor track, earning All-American accolades in the 1500m and the 5000m. Roeder is currently pursuing a masters in mechanical engineering and has completed internships with Alegre Design and WB Engineers+Consultants. She was an undergraduate researcher in the MIT Ideation Laboratory as well as an apprentice in the Pappalardo Laboratory. She received both the Louis N. Tuomala Award for the MIT Mechanical Engineering Department as well as the Ascher H. Shapiro (1938) Departmental Fellowship.

Surace, a business management major, was a USTFCCCA All-Region and All-American First Team honoree in the Pole Vault during the indoor season, helping MIT to capture the team national championship while finishing as the national runner-up in the pole vault. She went on to claim NEWMAC All-Conference, USTFCCCA All-Region and All-America Second Team honors during the outdoor season. On campus, Surace is a member of the MIT Undergraduate Association Education Committee and participated in the Active Community Engagement Freshman Pre-Orientation Program through the MIT PKG Center. During the 2024-2025 season, she completed an internship with the non-profit Ek Kadam Aur and she has previously held internships with Mercer and Albiero Energy.

Boykin, a chemistry and biology major, adds Academic All-America honors to a record-breaking career that included 16 All-American honors and eight national championships. The NCAA Division III national record holder in the shot put, Boykin was the indoor national champion in both the weight throw and shot put and the outdoor national champion in the shot put, claiming multiple All-Region and national honors, including indoor and outdoor field athlete of the year. An undergraduate researched in MIT's Pentelute Lab, Boykin received an MIT Chemistry Research Award in 2025 while serving as a resident peer mentor in Baker House.

Sanderson, a biological engineering major, was the 2024 NEWMAC Cross Country Athlete of the Year before going on to earn All-Region honors in the fall as MIT captured the national title. Sanderson claimed multiple All-Region accolades during the indoor season before going on to earn All-American First Team honors in the DMR and the 3000m at indoor nationals, as her performance in the 3000m helped MIT clinch the indoor national title. On the outdoor track, Sanderson was a First Team All-American in the 10000m and a Second Team All-American in the 5000m as MIT took home the outdoor title. Off the track, Sanderson is an undergraduate researcher with the Xiao Wang Group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She was also a visiting scholar at CalTech and completed a summer internship at Instituto Quimico de Sarria in Barcelona.

The Academic All-America Teams, selected by CSC, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances in their sport and in the classroom.
  
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