University of Minnesota Duluth senior Grant Pulver, junior Michaela Hesse and senior Emi Trost put the finishing touches on their respective athletic careers by attaining 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-American Track/Cross Country honors.  Pulver landed a spot on the 19-person first team while Hesse and Trost were both second team picks. Trost was voted to the first team one year ago and thus becomes the eighth Bulldog to ever receive CoSIDA Academic All-American acclaim on more than one occasion. The Google Cloud Academic All-American teams are voted on by members of College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

The addition of Pulver, Hesse and Trost gives the Bulldogs a program-best eight Academic All-Americans for the 2017-18 season. That's three more than the previous high which was set in 2010-11. UMD's other 2017-18 Google Cloud Academic All-Americans include junior Jason Balts (football-first team), junior Valerie Hohol (softball-first team), junior Makenzie Morgen (volleyball second team), senior Becky Smith (softball-third team) and senior Nick Thorpe (football first team). 

Pulver, a four-time cross country and track letterman from Chippewa Falls, Wis., native, made UMD athletic history this past November when he became the Bulldogs' first NCAA Elite 90 award recipient (presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's championships). Pulver, who was bestowed with a similar honor from the NSIC (Elite 18 award) the last two seasons in cross country, graduated from UMD earlier this month with a perfect 4.00 cumulative grade point average while double majoring in statistics/actuarial science and financial markets. As a senior, he helped lead UMD to its first NCAA II Cross Country Championship berth in 13 years after the Bulldogs placed fourth -- their highest finish in program history --  at the 2017 NCAA II Central Regional two weeks earlier.

Hesse, a high jumper and sprinter (400- and 200-dash) maintained a 4.00 cumulative GPA as a communicative science and disorders major. The Sebeka, Minn., native and 2018 UMD graduate, was part of a 4 x 400-relay unit that on Feb. 10, 2018 set a school record with a time of 3:55.54 at the South Dakota State University Indoor Classic. During the course of the 2017-18 indoor and outdoor track and field seasons, Hesse laid claim to a pair of individual titles (high jump and 400-meter dash) and three 4 x 400-meter relay crowns.

Another May 2018 graduate, Trost majored in exercise in sports science, compiling a 3.82 GPA along the way. She was a 10-time NCAA Division II All-American, attaining that honor five times in indoor track, three times in cross country and twice in outdoor track. One year ago, the Goodhue, Minn., product captured the NCAA II outdoor 1,500-meter crown to become UMD's fourth female individual national champion. Trost took part in the NCAA II Cross Country Championships in each of her four years with the Bulldogs, including in 2016 when she placed fourth overall -- the highest finish ever for a Bulldog at that event. As a junior, she also reigned as the NSIC champion, the first UMD runner to do that in seven seasons. In addition to her 1,500-meter championship conquest in 2017, Trost has posted four runnerup finishes at the NCAA track nationals (indoor mile and distance medley relay in both 2016 and 2017) and a pair of fourth-place efforts (indoor mile in 2015 and outdoor 1,500 meters in 2017). The 2016 NSIC Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year and 2016 and 2017 NSIC Indoor Track Athlete of the Year, Trost won nine individual NSIC track titles (six indoor and three outdoor) during her Bulldog career and rank a leg for one championship-winning relay team as well. She owns eight school track records, five of which are also NSIC all-time bests (600-meter, 1,000-meter and mile indoor; 800-meter and 1,500-meter outdoor). Trost, who collared United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Region recognition on 10 lifetime occasions (four cross country, three indoor track and three outdoor track), was sidelined with an injury for the entire 2016 outdoor and 2018 indoor seasons.

Google Cloud Academic All-American Cross Country/Track Teams