AUSTIN, Texas – Colorado State University Pueblo concludes the 2024-25 athletic season with two women's track and field/cross country student-athletes being named to the 2024-25 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-America Women's Track & Field/Cross Country Team on Tuesday morning.

The CSC named graduate student Katherine Higgins (Mead, Colo./Ponderosa) as a First-Team Academic All-American and junior Jadyn Herron (Queen Creek, Ariz./Casteel) as a Second-Team Academic All-American. Higgins is a repeat Academic All-American selection as she was named a third-team selection last year, while Herron earns her first career Academic All-American accolade.

Higgins and Herron are now the 10th and 11th Pack women's track and field/cross country student-athletes to be recognizes as Academic All-Americans. In addition, Higgins and Herron become the second and third Pack student-athletes in the 2024-25 school year to earn Academic All-American honors as men's soccer player Shjon Andrews repeated as a First-Team Academic All-American on Dec. 10, 2024. With the three Academic All-American honors this year, CSU Pueblo has now had a total of 56 CSC Academic All-Americans in school history, including 35 since the beginning of the 2018-19 school year.

The CSC Academic All-America teams, nominated and selected by Sports Information professionals from across the country, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom. To be considered for a CSC Academic All-America team, student-athletes In order to earn a spot on the Academic All-America, nominees must hold at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA, and have distinguished themselves with outstanding performances in either track & field or cross country.

Higgins, who was one of five Pack female track and field/cross country student-athletes to earn CSC Academic All-District honors this season, moves up to the first team this year after concluding her collegiate career this past spring by not only capturing her first national title in the women's outdoor shot put, but also taking home the NCAA Division II Elite 90 Award for women's outdoor track and field. The Academic All-America honor just adds to Higgins' other postseason accolades she's received this season as she was named the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Woman of the Year, the RMAC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the league's nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year.

Her national championship in the women's outdoor shot put this season came after finishing as the national runner-up in the shot put four times – 2025 Indoor, 2024 Indoor, 2023 Outdoor and 2023 Indoor. She qualified for the NCAA National Championships in the shot put seven times in her career and finished either first and second at the national championships five of those seven times.

During the 2024-25 school year, Higgins was an All-American in the shot put in both the indoor and outdoor season as she was the runner-up in the event at the NCAA D-II Indoor National Championships and took home the national title during the outdoor season with a career-best mark of 16.38 meters. In addition, she swept both of this year's RMAC Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Academic Athlete of the Year and was a named a CSC Academic All-District selection for the third consecutive year. 

Higgins, who is pursuing a master's degree in Education and carries a 4.0 cumulative GPA in graduate school and earned her bachelor's degree in middle school mathematics with a 3.78 cumulative GPA, was an eight-time All-American in the shot put, including earning first-team honors during both the indoor and outdoor seasons the past three years. She was a Second-Team All-American as a redshirt freshman in 2022. Along with her eight All-American honors, she was an eight-time All-RMAC selection, including earning first-team honors in 2025 in the indoor shot put and weight throw and the outdoor shot put and discus and was a three-time RMAC Champion in the shot put, including capturing the gold medal in the event in both the indoor and outdoor seasons in 2025.

Along with winning the RMAC shot put title three times, she was the runner-up in the event three times – 2024 Outdoor, 2023 Outdoor, 2023 Indoor. She was also a seven-time USTFCCCA All-South Central Region honoree, including being named 2025 USTFCCCA South Central Region Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year. She was also an eight-time member of the RMAC All-Academic Track Teams and a three-time member of the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team.

Meanwhile, Herron earns her Second-Team Academic All-American honor after carrying a 3.97 cumulative grade point average in social work. During the recently completed 2024-25 school year, Herron was a member of the Pack's national championship Indoor Distance Medley Relay team and was also named an All-American in the women's indoor 800-meters and qualified in the women's outdoor 800 meters at the 2025 NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships.

Along with her national finishes, Herron was a member of the Pack's RMAC Indoor Champion Distance Medley Relay team and the Pack's RMAC Indoor Runner-up 4-x-400 Meter Relay team and she was third in the women's indoor 800 meters and second in the women's outdoor 1,500 meters at the RMAC Championships. She was also a member of the Pack's national third-place women's cross country team.

In her Pack career, Herron is a two-time member of the RMAC Women's Cross Country All-Academic Honor Roll and a two-time member of the All-Academic Honor Roll for women's indoor and outdoor track and was named to the RMAC Women's Indoor and Outdoor All-Academic First Team during the 2025 school year.

Higgins and Herron are two of the nine student-athletes from the RMAC named to the Division II CSC Academic All-America Team as they are joined by Colorado Christian graduate student Shannon King (First Team), Colorado School of Mines senior Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge (First Team), Western Colorado junior Allison Beasley (Second Team), Fort Lewis College junior Hannah Hartwell (Second Team), Colorado School of Mines senior Claire Kintzley (Second Team), Colorado School of Mines senior Dale Thompson (Second Team), and UCCS senior Anna Fauske (Third Team). Additionally, CSU Pueblo was one of eight Division II schools to have at least two student-athletes named CSC Academic All-Americans in women's track and field/cross country as Pittsburg State led the way with five overall selections, while Grand Valley State and Mines each had three selections and Alaska-Fairbanks, Lee (Tenn.) University, Missouri Western State University and Slippery Rock joined the Pack with two overall selections.

The Division II Academic All-America® programs are partially financially supported by the NCAA Division II national governance structure to assist CSC with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2023-24 Division II Academic All-America® program.

Here is complete list of the CSU Pueblo women's track and field/cross country student athletes that have been named CSC Academic All-Americans.
 

2017-18	Sydni Riley (Third Team)
2019-20	Nicole Bouma (Third Team)
	Lauren Fairchild (Third Team)
	Hailey Streff (Third Team)
2020-21	Hailey Streff (Third Team)
2021-22	Hailey Streff (First Team)
	Yasmine Hernandez (Second Team)
	Jenna McKinley (Third Team)
2023-24	Katherine Higgins (Third Team)
2024-25	Katherine Higgins (First Team)
	Jadyn Herron (Second Team)