NEWTOWN, Pa.— The Middle Atlantic Conference Office today released its Academic All-MAC lists for the 2025 Cross Country season. After his best Cross Country season, Eastern University senior Ryle Mellinger earned his first Academic All-MAC Honor.

Mellinger, a senior English major from Glen Mills, Pa. earned First-Team All-MAC honors with an eighth-place finish at the 2025 Championships at Delaware Valley. Two weeks later, he broke the 10-year old Eastern 8K program record and earned All-Metro Region Honors at the Dream Course in Logan Township, N.J. He ran the course at Rowan five full seconds faster than Greg Thomas did in 2016.

As a standout in both Cross Country and Track and Field, Mellinger competes year-round for the Eagles. He recently broke the Indoor 3,000 Meter record which was set by Thomas in 2018

Mellinger is the first Eastern Men's Cross Country runner to earn a spot on the prestigious list since since Bryton Henry and Milan Sharma each earned recognition in 2019. He is the seventh Eastern runner to be honored since the MAC started the Academic All-MAC program in 2013. Rusty Batykefer earned a spot in 2018. Doug Kramer and Thomas were on the team in 2017, and Nick Trombley was honored in 2014.

Academic All-MAC teams are selected by vote for performance in the classroom and in competition from nominees of all 16 MAC Institutions. While an individual has to earn at least a 3.2 semester GPA to be nominated, the group average of the honorees was over a 3.7 GPA. All ten honorees earned All-MAC Honors and many claimed All-Region recognition in either the Metro or Mid-Atlantic Regional races.