SPORTS

Ascension Catholic's Sophie Daigle earns USTFCCCA honors

Staff Report

Former Ascension Catholic standout Sophie Daigle clocked a personal-best time in the 6K and became the first Women's Cross Country runner in school history to qualify for the NCAA Championships after finishing third overall at the NCAA South Central Regional at the Dale Watts Cross Country Course.

The University of Louisiana's Sophie Daigle continued to add more accolades to her resume as she earned NCAA Division I Cross Country All-Academic Athlete honors, while the Ragin' Cajuns Men's and Women's Cross Country teams were recognized with All-Academic Team honors in an announcement by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Daigle, who was named the Sun Belt Conference Cross Country Female Newcomer of the Year, became the first Ragin' Cajuns women's runner to qualify for the NCAA Championships after her third-place finish at the NCAA South Central Regional.

The senior has a cumulative 3.54 grade point average in Elementary Education, finished second overall at the SBC Cross Country Championships and posted the best individual finish by a Ragin' Cajuns women's runner in 19 years and helped guide Louisiana to its best finish since 2017.

Her time of 16.36.2 helped her to a second-place finish for Louisiana, joining Natalie Gillis (2003) in earning the highest individual by a Ragin' Cajuns runner at the SBC Championships.

Daigle, who was one of 171 women from 88 different institutions named to the All-Academic List, had four top-10 finishes in five events during the season with victories at both the New Orleans XC Opener and ULM Warhawk Invitational. She placed 16th overall at the Arturo Barrios Invitational, covering the course in 20:59.3 to finish as the top SBC runner in the event.

Daigle posted a top-10 finish and turned in the top 5K time among state runners this season after clocking a time of 16:39.6 seconds at Arkansas' Chile Pepper Festival. Her time was nearly a minute faster than her previous 5K event this season - a time of 17:26.0 set at ULM's Warhawk Invitational as she placed eighth overall in a field of 276 runners. The Ragin' Cajuns Women's team posted a team GPA of 3.581 to join an All-Academic Team list of 249 teams nationally with the Louisiana Men's team among a list of 216 schools after recording a team GPA of 3.438. In order to qualify for All-Academic distinction, student-athletes must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25 on a 4.0 scale and finish in the top-25 (or 10 percent) at the NCAA Regional Championships or as an All-American at the NCAA Championships. In order to qualify for All-Academic distinction, teams must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale, including the most recent grading period.