NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt senior civil engineering major Nick Laning earned SEC Men’s Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors for the second straight year as announced by the conference office Wednesday.
Laning is just the second man in SEC history to win the honor more than once joining Kentucky’s Jacob Thompson (2016, 2017).
Last year, Laning became the first Vanderbilt man to receive the award. Prior to Laning, the last Vanderbilt cross country or track and field athlete to earn the distinction was Simone Charley in 2017.
Laning, who holds a 3.98 GPA with a minor in computer science, was also the first Vanderbilt man to earn academic All-America honors and, in 2019, he was just the second Vanderbilt man to earn all-SEC honors in cross country and the first since 1966.
Laning is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District award recipient. The Barrington, Illinois, native, who was also an all-region selection in addition to his second-team all-conference honors in 2019, was a USTFCCCA All-Academic recipient last season as well.
Recently, Laning presented his research project that sought to provide alternatives for flood mitigation to help reduce the need for disaster response and assist in transportation planning during extreme flood conditions.
Vanderbilt cross country is set to compete at the SEC Championships in Columbia, Missouri, on Friday.
