AACC’s Women’s Cross Country coach in September pointed to academics as a major player in the team’s success this season.

Coach Jim Griffiths said the team wants to earn the NJCAA National Academic Team of the Year Award, which requires an average team GPA of at least 3.0.

Second-year cross country athlete Emily Jacobson said the team can “achieve their academic and athletic goals together, as a whole, to become successful.”

“Our goal for the runners is to individually improve each day and to progress as much as possible,” Griffiths explained. “… To perform as well in the classroom as they possibly can. If they can do that, then our [athletic] goals will be attainable.”

Athletically, Griffiths said his goal is to prepare his runners to win this year’s Region 20 Championships, during which AACC will compete with teams from the other 15 community colleges in Maryland. If the Riverhawks win, they will reach the championships, where Griffiths said he hopes they will rank high.

“We’d like to finish strong,” Madeline Fitzgerald, a second-year transfer studies student and runner, said.