GREENWOOD, Ind. – MIT men's track and field and cross country seniors Sean Huckleberry and Jared Steins, and junior David Whitaker have been named to the 2025-26 Academic All-America® men's track & field/cross country team, as selected by College Sports Communicators.
Huckleberry has been named to the first team while Steins earned a spot on the second team and Whitaker earned a third team selection. Huckleberry, Steins, and Whitaker each earned the honor for the first time in their respective careers.
Huckleberry, a Computer Science and Engineering major, was one of 15 members of the Academic All-America® team with a perfect GPA. He finished tenth in the triple jump at the 2026 NCAA outdoor championships, making his second NCAA Championship appearance following a 14th-place performance in 2025. The NEWMAC Champion in both the triple and long jump, he was named the 2025 NEWMAC Championship Field Athlete of the Meet and earned All-Region honors during both the indoor and outdoor seasons. A NEWMAC Academic All-Conference selection, he has served as a Jump Trading Software Engineer Intern, Amazon Software Development Engineer Intern, Matillion Software Engineer Intern, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Data Science Intern and is a member of HKN EECS Honors Society, Sloan Business Club, and Sigma Chi.
Steins, a Mechanical Engineering major with a 3.80 GPA, claimed All-American honors with a sixth-place finish in the 800m at the NCAA outdoor championships, where he was making his first appearance after three trips to the NCAA indoor championships. This season he ranked in the top five regionally, earning All-Region honors, in the indoor 800m and mile and the outdoor 800m and 1500m while also capturing the NEWMAC title in the 800m. A NEWMAC and USTFCCCA All-Academic Athlete, he is a member of the Theta Tau Engineering Fraternity and has completed internships with the Apple Manufacturing Quality Engineering Co-op, Politecnico di Milano AIDA Mechanical R&D Engineering, and Edwards Lifesciences Mechanical R&D Engineering.
Whitaker earned a 3.70 GPA while studying Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. He was one of the top 800m runners during both the indoor and outdoor season, earning All-Region honors while ranking first regionally during the indoor season and second during the outdoor season. He also earned a 45th-place finish at the NEWMAC Cross Country Championship. A team captain, he made is NCAA outdoor championship debut in 2026, earning All-America honors with a seventh-place finish in the 800m. A NEWMAC and USTFCCCA All-Academic Athlete, he has completed internships with Quadric Hardware/Software R&D and blueflite R&D Engineering. He also served as an Undergraduate Research Assistant with the MIT Media Lab and as a Computation Structures Lab Assistant in the MIT EECS Department.
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. MIT remains the all-time leader in men's cross country and track and field Academic All-America® selections with 63.
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