Atlantic 10 Release

Newport News, Va. – (May 15, 2019) – The Atlantic 10 Conference announced its Academic All-Conference teams for outdoor track & field on Wednesday.   Among those honored included juniors Ryan Kutch (Holtsville, N.Y./St. Anthony's) and Andrew Byrne (Milton, Mass./Boston College HS).
 
For Kutch, this is the second time that he has been named to the outdoor track & field Academic All-Conference team, and fifth overall (cross country – once, indoor track & field – twice, outdoor track & field – twice), while being the second overall selection for Byrne (indoor track & field – once).
 
The Academic All-Conference teams are comprised of student-athletes who were selected based on their athletic and academic performance. To be nominated, student-athletes must have a GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) for their entire academic career. The teams were selected through voting conducted by the league's Sports Information Directors.
 
Kutch holds a 3.36 GPA and majors in Finance with a concentration in Business Economics.  He was a dual event champion at the 2019 Atlantic 10 Championship in the 5,000 and 10,000-meter events.  It was the third time he won the outdoor 10,000 meter event.  He became the first runner in Atlantic 10 history to sweep all distance events in one season at the Atlantic 10 Championship, taking the cross country title, the indoor 3,000 and 5,000 meters, and the outdoor 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
 
Aside from his performance at the Atlantic 10 Championship, Kutch was the Metropolitan outdoor champion in the 10,000 meters, and set school records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meter events.
 
Byrne, who holds a 3.79 GPA and is majoring in American Studies, earned a bronze medal in the decathlon at the Atlantic 10 Championship with a career-best score of 5,842 points.  He was also runner-up in the decathlon at the Metropolitan Championship with 5,810 points.