SALT LAKE CITY – Stanford’s Christina Aragon and Oregon’s Matt Wisner were named the 2021 Pac-12 Women’s and Men’s Cross Country Scholar-Athletes of the Year, the Conference office announced ahead of Friday’s Pac-12 Championships. The awards, which are presented in each of the 24 sports the Pac-12 sponsors, were established to honor collegiate student-athletes that are standouts both academically and in their sports discipline.

Aragon, who completed her undergraduate degree in human biology with a 3.78 GPA this past spring, has twice earned USTFCCCA All-Academic recognition in cross country (2018, 2020) to go along with three academic honors from the Pac-12 (2017, 2018, 2019).

She has helped Stanford to Pac-12 team titles in each of the past two seasons, along with a West Region championship in 2019. A two-time All-West Region selection in cross country (2016, 2017), Aragon earned All-America status in 2016 by placing 38th at the NCAA Championships. She finished 14th at the Conference meet as a freshman in 2016 to earn All-Pac-12 second team honors and received the same distinction this past March when she placed 12th. Aragon has also earned six other All-America honors during her career in indoor and outdoor track and field.

Wisner, who began his collegiate career at Duke, is a journalism graduate student at Oregon with a 3.84 GPA. Recognized on the Pac-12’s 2021 Spring Academic Honor Roll following the outdoor track and field season, he was also an NCAA West Preliminary qualifier at 800 meters this past spring. A five-time all-academic recipient in indoor and outdoor track and field during his time in the ACC, Wisner was also a 2020 All-American in the indoor 800m.

In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility), on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50 percent of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sport’s regular season. The athletics accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in voting for the award.

A Scholar-Athlete of the Year is named in each of the Pac-12’s 24 sponsored sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, beach volleyball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, men’s rowing, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track & field, women’s track & field, women’s volleyball, and wrestling. The award was first established during the 2008-09 academic year.

ALSO NOMINATED:
Men – Paxton Smith, COLO; DJ Principe, STAN; Isaac Green, WASH, Zach Stallings, WSU.
Women – Maddy Christopher, ARIZ; Abby Nichols, COLO; Aneta Konieczek, ORE; Audrey Lookner, OSU; Gwyn George UCLA; Bella Williams, UTAH; Allie Schadler, WASH; Pia Richards, WSU.