CoSIDA Men's Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Team
A trio of Centennial Conference student-athletes have been honored as Academic All-Americas in men's track & field/cross country by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Johns Hopkins' Daniel Chen (2nd team) and Elias Boussouf (3rd team) and Swarthmore's Aidan Cantine (2nd team) received the prestigious honor.
Chen, a rising senior, is majoring in molecular and cellular biology and earns Academic All-America honors for the first time in his career. He is a two-time Centennial Conference (CC) medalist, including winning gold with the DMR team at the 2022 CC Indoor Championships. He also qualified in the mile for the NCAA Indoor Championships this March. Chen holds the program's freshman record in the indoor mile and has run two of the 10 fastest times in the indoor mile. Chen worked as a tutor for SoFlo Tutoring last summer. He also volunteered at UnityPoint Health Methodist Hospital in the Spring of 2021. In addition, Chen has worked as an undergraduate researcher in the Sidhaye Lab at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health since June of 2021.
Boussouf, who graduated in May with a degree in biophysics, also earns Academic All-America honors for the first time. He has earned nine Centennial Conference medals, including gold as a member of the 4x400 relay team at the 2021 CC Outdoor Championships. Boussouf holds three of the top-10 marks in Hopkins history in the 400m hurdles. Boussouf is a member of the JHU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. In the Summer of 2020, he was a member of the Online Resources Working Group, which provided recommendations to prepare faculty for online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Boussouf has also worked a clinical summary specialist for PinnacleCare and as a clinical laboratory shift supervisor at Curative. In addition, he was an undergraduate student researcher in the lab of Dr. Michael Lim at the JHU School of Medicine in the summer of 2019.
Cantine, a computer science major, was selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District and PhillySIDA Academic All-Area Track & Field teams earlier this month. This past fall, Cantine was recognized by the Centennial Conference as the Men's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the PhillySIDA Cross Country Co-Performer of the Year. Cantine added another accolade to his growing list of accomplishments with his first USTFCCCA All-Academic selection. The junior qualified for the NCAA National Championships this fall - finishing 64th overall with a personal record of 24:36.5. Cantine was also chosen PhillySIDA Co-Performer of the Year and Centennial Men's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year, respectively. He placed fourth overall (25:50.9) at the Centennial Conference Championships and fifth (25:27.9) at the Metro Regional Championship
On the track, Cantine helped the Garnet to victory in the 4x800 meter relay both during the indoor and outdoor Centennial Conference Championships. At the last chance meet on May 16th, Cantine set the school record in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 3:50.99. He was named Academic All-Centennial for the indoor and outdoor season this year and the Centennial Academic Honor Roll four times.