CSC Academic All-America Teams (PDF)
CALIFORNIA (June 28) – California (PA) graduate student
Divonne Franklin (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop John Carroll) was selected a First-Team Academic All-American by the College Sports Communicators (CSC) on Wednesday afternoon, marking the second-straight year she was voted an Academic All-American.
The CSC Academic All-America program replaces the former CoSIDA Academic All-America program after CoSIDA recently rebranded the organization as College Sports Communicators. The program increased the minimum cumulative grade-point average (GPA) for nominees to 3.50 (previously 3.30) and instituted a limit on the maximum number of submissions by a school in each sport.
Franklin earned First-Team Academic All-America laurels after being a Second-Team Academic All-America honoree in 2022. The Cal women's cross country/track & field program has featured 11 Academic All-Americans in the last nine years, the most of any sport during that span. Franklin is the fifth women's cross country/track & field standout to garner Academic All-America laurels multiple times in a career.
A native of Philadelphia, Franklin became the program's first national champion in over 35 years when she captured national titles in both the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. She earned NCAA First-Team All-America status in four events in 2023 while completing three-peats in four events at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships. Franklin shattered four all-time conference records and four all-time league championship marks this season.
Franklin recorded the fastest 100-meter time in NCAA Division II history, regardless of conditions, during the finals of the NCAA Championships with a time of 11.09 seconds. She also ranks second all-time in NCAA Division II history in the outdoor 200 meters with a time of 22.65 seconds during the finals of the PSAC Championships. Franklin became the first NCAA Division II female athlete to ever be named U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Athlete of the Week in consecutive weeks this spring.
During the indoor season, Franklin placed second in the finals of the 60-meter dash at the NCAA Championships with a time of 7.27 seconds and finished fourth in the 200 meters with a time of 23.49 seconds. She also competed against the top professional sprinters in the country at the USA Track & Field (USATF) Indoor Championships in mid-February.
Franklin swept USTFCCCA Atlantic Region Track Athlete of the Year and PSAC Track Athlete of the Year honors in both the indoor and outdoor campaigns in 2022 and 2023. She won a school-record 15 league titles (12 individual) and helped the Vulcans record their best-ever finishes at the PSAC Championships, tying for second at the 2022 indoor championships and finishing third at the 2021 outdoor meet.
An eight-time All-American, Franklin boasts a 4.00 cumulative GPA while pursuing her master's degree in exercise science and health promotion with a concentration in rehabilitation science. She completed her bachelor's degree in 2022 in biology with a concentration in pre-medicine and a minor in chemistry while holding a 3.64 cumulative GPA. Franklin has been tabbed to the PSAC Top 10 twice in each of the last two years and is one of six women nominated for the 2023 Pete Nevins Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award, which is presented to the top student-athlete in the PSAC.
Franklin will be competing at the USATF Outdoor Championships from July 6-9 in Eugene, Ore., at Hayward Field. Additional information about the event will be posted on calvulcans.com next week after the declaration of the field.
