Alatalo & Bolick Become Bentley’s Latest CoSIDA Academic All-America® Honorees
WALTHAM, Mass. – Recent Bentley University graduates Erik Alatalo (Wilmington/Wilmington HS) and Tim Bolick (Hopkinton/Hopkinton HS) have been selected for the 2017 CoSIDA Academic All-America® Division II Men's Track and Cross Country third team by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
They are the fourth and fifth Bentley student-athletes to gain the prestigious honor during the 2016-17 academic year, joining hockey player Max French and football players Bryan Hardy and Sam McDonald.
Both Alatalo and Bolick distinguished themselves on the track and in the classroom before graduating Summa Cum Laude on May 20, achieving grade point averages over 3.8 during their Bentley careers. Alatalo majored in both accountancy and liberal studies while Bolick, whose father Paul was a two-time Academic All-America for Bentley during the mid-80s, earned his degree in corporate finance and accounting.
Alatalo and Bolick were key members of the Falcon cross country team that qualified for the NCAA Division II Championships last November. In the NCAA regional, Alatalo was 28th overall in 32:39.4 and Bolick crossed five places and 12 seconds later.
A four-time Academic All-Northeast-10 selection, Alatalo earned Division II All-East Region honors in the 10,000 meters this spring. He finished sixth in the 5,000 at the Northeast-10 Indoor Championships, posting a time of 15:33.08, and was eighth in the 10K at the outdoor conference championships (32:52.31). Alatalo owns the eighth best 10K time in program history (31:50.47) and third best since 2000.
Bolick also earned All-East recognition following the recent outdoor season with his honor coming in the 800 meters. His highlights during his final year as a collegian included placing third at the indoor Northeast-10 Championships, 5th at the outdoor NE10's and eighth at the New Englands, all in the 800. His time of 1:51.68 in the 800 outdoors ranks second in program history and he is also sixth on Bentley's indoor list in the 800 (1:54.13).
Alatalo has accepted a position with PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) while Bolick will be a credit analyst for TD Bank.
Alatalo and Bolick give coach Kevin Curtin's Bentley track program a dozen Academic All-America awards (seven men, five women) during the past six years.
All-time, Bentley student-athletes have earned 77 Academic All-America awards, a total that ranks 11th among all Division II institutions. Of those, 34 have come since 2010.
The Division II Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division II national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2016-17 Division II Academic All-America® teams program.