TOWSON, Md. - Junior Brandi Gervais has been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America third team for Track & Field/Cross Country, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

A pre-dentistry major, Gervais, one of the Tigers leading long distance runners, is carrying a perfect 4.0 grade point average into her senior year. She is the only upperclass student-athlete at Towson with an overall 4.0 GPA.

On the track she reset the program's 5000 indoor record with a 17:45.33 clocking at the NYU Fastrack Invitational this past winter. She's only the second runner at Towson ever to post a sub-18:00 time in the 5000 overall and she's done that five times. She finished no worse than 5^th in every 5000 race she ran both indoors and outdoors. She is one of just three Towson runners to post a sub-38:00 in the 10,000 with a 37:22.00 for third on that list.

In cross country Gervais had three top ten finishes that included a second place in the Towson Invitational 5K in 19:20. She placed 9^th in the Baltimore Metro in 19:11, the third fastest 5K for Towson in 2009. She also placed 9^th in the Delaware Invitational. She was Towson's top finisher in two races, the Paul Short Invitational (123^rd-22:10) and the CAA Championships (23^rd-22:25). Her 22:10 at the Paul Short was the fastest 6K time for a Towson runner in 2009 and two seconds off her personal best.

"Brandi is extremely dedicated to her studies and to her training," said Tiger coach Roger Erricker. "We've seen the payoff in both with her record in the 5000 and her 4.0 GPA."  

Gervais, who has been named team captain by Erricker for the 2010-11 year, showed the way for the Tigers' cross country team that tied for 23^rd among 176 Division I programs selected by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as an All-Academic Team. The squad posted a team GPA of 3.54, tying it with Syracuse, Lehigh and Bowling Green.

Brandi is the daughter of Lt. Col. Chris Gervais and Col. Maria Gervais. Both parents are serving their country in Iraq, stationed in Baghdad. Born in Augsburg, Germany, she currently resides in Towson and calls it her hometown.