GREENWOOD, Ind. – MIT women's track and field and cross country seniors Hailey Surace, Kate Sanderson, and Katelyn Howard have been named to the 2025-26 Academic All-America® women's track & field/cross country team, as selected by College Sports Communicators.

Surace and Sanderson repeated as Academic All-America® selections, with Surace earning First Team honors for the second consecutive year and Sanderson being named to the Second Team after earning Third Team recognition last season. Howard earned the honor for the first time. 

Surace, a business management major, was one of five first team honorees with a perfect GPA. The national runner-up in the pole vault, she was an All-Region honoree during both the indoor and outdoor seasons, ranking first in the region in the pole vault. She earned All-American honors during both the indoor and outdoor seasons, finishing her career as a seven-time NCAA Championship qualifier, four-time All-American and the 2025 indoor national runner-up and 2026 outdoor national runner-up. An MIT Sloan School of Management Undergraduate Research Assistant and MIT Catalyst Program Outcomes Researcher, she was the recipient of the Sloan 2026 Senior Prize for outstanding leadership and professional promise. She is also on the MIT Undergraduate Association Education Committee, participated in the Active Community Engagement Freshman Pre-Orientation Program through the MIT PKG Center and completed an internship with the non-profit Ek Kadam Aur while previously holding internships with Mercer and Albiero Energy.

Sanderson, a biological engineering major, held a 3.90 GPA. She ends her career as one of the most decorated student-athletes in MIT history, qualifying for every cross country, indoor, and outdoor NCAA Championship for which she was eligible and earning eight All-America honors in track and field and three in cross country. A National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program recipient, she completed research at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and The Jackson Laboratory. She was also a CalTech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, a grader with the MIT Deptartment of Biological Engineering and an Associate Advisor with MIT Undergraduate Advising Center, mentoring cohorts of first-year students annually.

Howard, a chemistry and biology major, had a 4.00 GPA as one of the top pole vaulters in the region and the country. Howard was the second ranked pole vaulter regionally during the indoor and outdoor seasons, earning All-Region honors during both seasons. She earned All-America first team honors during the indoor season before going on to capture the NEWMAC Pole Vault Championship and qualify for the NCAA outdoor championships. A NEWMAC and USTFCCCA All-Academic Athlete, She received the MIT Department of Chemistry Academic Achievement Award and the AMITA Senior Academic Award. She is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, as well as a Gates Cambridge Scholarship finalist, Marshall Scholarship finalist, and Rhodes Scholarship finalist. A teaching assistant with MIT Biology Department, she was co-founder of Emerging Researchers in Women's Health Symposium, and founded and organized MIT's first women's-health-focused poster symposium.

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 is the all-time leader in women's cross country and track and field Academic All-America® selections with 57.

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