Andrew Hilliard gets Verizon Academic All-District

May 23, 2002
St. Thomas junior All-American Andrew Hilliard (JR-Woodbury) repeated as a first-team honoree on the Verizon College Division Academic District V team for men's track and field.

Hilliard, who has a 3.98 gpa in Mathematics, goes on the national ballot for Academic All-America consideration. He was a second-team at-large Academic All-American honoree in 2001 and a first-team Verizon Academic All-American in football in fall 2001.

Hilliard competes in two relay events this weekend at the NCAA Division III Championships at Macalester College in St. Paul. He will run prelims Thursday evening in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. He was a provisional qualifier in 400 hurdles but just missed the cutoff for the 16-man field after competing in that event at the 2001 NCAA Championships.

Hilliard, who qualified for the 2002 NCAA Division III national indoor meet at 400 meter. He was an MIAC champion indoors in the 4x400 relay and outdoors in the 400 hurdles (repeat winner), and the 4x100 relay and 4x400 relay. On his three-year career, the Tommies have won all six indoor and outdoor team championships and he's been a part of eight relay titles and two 400 hurdles championships.

He ran on the sixth-place 4x400 relay team in 2001 NCAA Division III national meet -- a unit that set an MIAC record of 3:12 in that event. In football he's caught 98 passes for 1,808 yards and 17 touchdowns in three seasons, and needs 845 yards in 2002 to become the Tommies' career receiving yards leader.