Evansville, Indiana native and University of Evansville senior cross country runner Brian Joyce (Central H.S.) has earned ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District V first team honors for the second year in a row for his work both on the course and in the classroom.  Now, Joyce is a finalist for Academic All-America honors.

Joyce earned first team Academic All-District V honors for both cross country and track and field on Friday in a vote of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).  He earned first team all-district and Academic All-America second team honors in 2009 for the Purple Aces, becoming the first UE cross country runner to earn Academic All-America honors.

In the classroom, Joyce has been one of UE’s best student-athletes, as he owns a perfect 4.00 cumulative grade-point average in exercise science at UE.  In fact, he was named UE’s top senior male scholar-athlete this past spring, as he earned UE’s Ralph H. Coleman Award in a vote of the school’s head coaches and administrators.

On the cross country course, Joyce was one of UE’s top runners last fall, as he posted four top 30 individual finishes for the Purple Aces, including placing 11th out of 151 runners at the UE Invitational last October.  He set a new personal standard in the 10-K event at the 2009 NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships with a time of 34:28.74.  He also posted a season-best time of 25:58.00 at the Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary, North Carolina on October 2.

“This is a tremendous honor once again for Brian, especially when you consider the fact that this award is for both track and cross country,” said UE head coach Don Walters.  “There are a lot of tremendous student-athletes who excel both on the track and on the course, as well as the classroom, and for Brian to be named to the district’s first team academically speaks volumes for the type of student-athlete that he is.”

Joyce will now advance on to voting for the Academic All-America teams for both cross country and track and field, which will take place next week.  He is trying to become UE’s 43rd Academic All-America selection.