WQIO Ohio's Super Station
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) is celebrating its 40th playing season by selecting All-Decade teams in all 23 championship sports. The league’s cross country honorees were announced on Monday, and Kenyon’s Emma Becker was amongst the student-athletes named to the NCAC 40th Anniversary Women’s Cross Country All-Decade Team.
Student-athletes that competed in the NCAC between the 2013-14 and the 2022-23 seasons who earned Player of the Year honors, or who earned a minimum of three All-NCAC first-team nods during this time were named to the team. Becker is one of nine women’s cross country student-athletes recognized by the NCAC for their outstanding accomplishments on the course.
Becker competed for Kenyon from 2018 to 2021, though there was no 2020 competition season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In three years on the course, she was named to the All-NCAC first team and earned All-Region honors twice, earning consecutive nods in 2019 and 2021.
During the 2019 season, Becker earned All-American status from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association after qualifying for the NCAA Championship, where she placed 32nd in the field of 277 runners. She was also named the Ohio NCAA Division III Women’s Runner of the Year by the Ohio Intercollegiate Cross Country Coaches Association after the stellar season.
In the absence of competition during the 2020 campaign, Becker was named both an Academic All-District and Academic All-American by College Sports Communicators, then the College Sports Information Directors of America. She is Kenyon’s only women’s cross country athlete to earn Academic All-America recognition.
As a senior in 2021, Becker placed third at the NCAC championship and 16th at the NCAA regional championship, which again qualified her for nationals, where she placed 104th among 292 runners.
Additionally, Becker was chosen as an NCAA Postgraduate Scholar, becoming just the third Kenyon cross country student-athlete to earn the prestigious scholarship.
