Women's cross country runner Aja Jackson was named a winner of the Fall SUNY Scholar Athlete of the Year Awards on Friday.

Jackson is one of 20 fall student-athletes being honored with the SUNY Scholar Athlete Award for combining academic achievement with athletic success. The Fall SUNY Scholar Athlete Awards recognize student-athletes attending SUNY colleges and universities which sponsor intercollegiate athletics at the four-year and two-year levels, who were nominated and voted upon by members of their respective institution and other institutions within the SUNY system. 

The student-athletes were nominated and voted on based on information such as cumulative grade point average, current and career statistics, and athletic and academic honors. Over 14,000 student-athletes compete at 53 different SUNY institutions across the NCAA Division I, NCAA Division III, USCAA, and NJCAA levels and are all eligible for the awards.

The SUNY Scholar Athlete Awards point out academic and athletic success in 29 different sports and are presented three times per academic/athletic year to correspond with the specific sports of the fall, winter, and spring seasons. The Scholar Athlete of the Year winners in each sport from the fall, winter, and spring will then be nominated for an overall Scholar Athlete of the Year, announced in mid-July, for men's and women's sports in each category. 

Jackson was named the winner in the NJCAA category for women's cross country, and will be receiving a photo plaque to commemorate her accomplishment. 

Jackson finished her SUNY Broome women's cross country career with a sixth place overall finish out of 98 runners at the NJCAA Championships with a season-best time of 20:08.60. She also placed 2nd overall at the Region 3 Championships for the second consecutive year, and won the Mid-State Athletic Conference Championships for a second year in a row. She was named a NJCAA Second Team All-American, as well as All-Region 3, All-MSAC, and the MSAC Women's Cross Country Runner of the Year all for a second year in a row. 

In her career, Jackson, a Business Administration major, is a two-time NJCAA All-American, has two top-six finishes at the NJCAA Championships, has made multiple NJCAA and Region 3 All-Academic Teams, owns a 5K PR of 19:43.79, and has a cumulative GPA of 3.76. Congratulations, Aja!

@BroomeAthletics