June 22, 2010

AMHERST, Mass. - Rising senior Kevin Johnson was named to the 2009-10 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Men's Track and Field and Cross Country third team, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced on Tuesday. Johnson is the 42nd student-athlete in UMass history to garner Academic All-America status and earns the fifth award by a member of the men's track and field/cross country programs, joining two-time Academic All-Americans Kwesi Frimpong-Boateng (2003-2004) and Jon Korhonen (2005-2006).

One of the Minutemen's top performers during the 2009 cross country season, Johnson led UMass to a second-place finish at the Atlantic 10 Championships last fall. He took first on the team and seventh overall on the way to A-10 All-Conference honors. Johnson finished in UMass' top-five in three-of-six cross country meets in 2009. Most recently, during the outdoor track & field season, Johnson placed seventh in the 5,000 meter run at the A-10 Championships.

With a 4.0 grade-point average as a Food Science major, Johnson has collected multiple academic honors. He has been selected to the Atlantic 10 Academic All-Conference teams on three occasions, twice in cross country (2008 and 2009) and in outdoor track & field in 2009. The Dean's List student was named the UMass Male Fall Scholar-Athlete in 2009, as well.