Five Men Named CoSIDA Academic All-District
(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Graduate students Matt Karee (Elmira, N.Y. / Notre Dame) and Bram Miller (Harmony, Pa. / Seneca Valley) along with seniors Justin Kiefel (Downingtown, Pa. / Downingtown STEM Academy) and Michael OBroin ( Park Ridge, Ill. / Saint Ignatius College Prep) and sophomore Andrew McGovern (Lexington, Mass. / Lexington) of the Carnegie Mellon University men's track and field and cross country teams have been honored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) as Men's Cross Country/Track and Field Academic All-District selections. The honor marks the fourth for Karee, third for Miller and second for Kiefel.
All five were selected to the District 4 team, comprised of all the Division III schools in Pennsylvania, and move on to the national ballot for Academic All-America consideration. To be eligible for the award, athletes must be starters or significant reserves in at least their sophomore season and carry a minimum GPA of 3.30.
Karee graduated with his master's degree in mechanical engineering in December with a 3.92 graduate grade-point average (GPA). Throughout his time at Carnegie Mellon, he has been a teaching assistant for fundamentals of mechanical engineering and an undergraduate research assistant as well as a peer tutor for academic development. Karee was elected to Pi Tau Sigma and Tau Beta Pi where he served as a mentor. He was an intern at The Fulcrum Group in New York City in 2021 and at Aerotech in 2020.
In his last year of cross country competition this fall, Karee finished 17th at the 2021 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships to earn All-America honors and led the Tartans to a 12th-place finish. He finished second at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships to lead the Tartans to their third straight regional title and earned all-region for the third time. This CoSIDA Academic All-District honor is the fourth of his career while he's been named a CoSIDA Academic All-American three times.
Miller graduated with a degree in mechanical engineer as he maintained a 3.83 GPA. He is currently pursuing a master's in engineering and has a 3.78 GPA. Miller was a captain on the football team and starting offensive lineman prior to being sidelined with an injury. He was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team in football and in track and field after the 2019 season and was honored a year ago as a CoSIDA Academic All-American. In the fall of 2020, he was the recipient of the Engineering Goldsmith Award, voted best overall capstone project for all undergraduate engineering at Carnegie Mellon. Miller has been a Value Engineering Intern for Milwaukee Electric Tool in Brookfield, Wisconsin, the last three summers.
During the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships, Miller placed second in the shot put, garnering his third All-American honor of his career. The graduate student was named the 2022 University Athletic Association (UAA) Most Outstanding Performer in the field events after winning the discus and shot put at the association championships. He was recently named Mid-Atlantic Region Men's Field Athlete of the Year, becoming the program's second men's track and field athlete to garner a regional award. Miller became the first Tartan to earn two All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the same year after placing second in the shot put and seventh in the discus throw at the 2021. He also holds the school record in both events. The thrower is an 11-time all-region honoree, eight-time UAA Champion, three-time UAA Indoor and Outdoor Most Outstanding Performer in the field events and was named UAA Rookie of the Year in 2018.
Kiefel, an electrical and computer engineering major with a minor in machine learning, has a 3.94 GPA. He was a software engineering intern for Appian Corporation in McLean, Virginia, as well as working as a research assistant for Carnegie Mellon Visual Intelligence Studio where he researched applications of computer vision and artificial intelligence for first responders.
Kiefel earned All-American honors at the 2022 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships after placing second in the triple jump. He holds school records in both the long and triple jumps, for both indoor and outdoor, and is an eight-time all-region honoree. This season, he was named UAA Most Outstanding Performer in the field events for the indoor season. In 2019 the senior was name UAA Rookie of the Year for the indoor season after winning the UAA triple jump title. In 2021, Kiefel was named Mideast Region Men's Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year, becoming the program's first men's track and field athlete to garner a regional award.
OBroin graduated with a 3.62 GPA in computer science. Throughout his undergraduate time at Carnegie Mellon, he held internships with Amazon as a software development engineer and with Caterpillar as a robotics & parallel co-op engineer. He also was a software engineer intern for Stats Perform. OBroin was the recipient of the Senior Leadership Recognition award which honors graduating seniors who have made significant contributions during their time at Carnegie Mellon.
For the 2021 cross country season, OBroin placed third at the Mid-Atlantic Regional on his way to being named an all-region honoree. He was named 2022 UAA Indoor Most Outstanding Performer in the running events for track and field after breaking the association record by 11.72 seconds in the 5,000-meter run on his way to winning his first UAA title. A few weeks after, OBroin earned All-America honors after placing second at he 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships in the same event. The senior holds two school records on the track while earning 10 all-region honors (seven on the track) throughout his career.
McGovern, a mechanical engineering major, carries a 3.94 GPA. He has an internship this summer with General Dynamics Electric Boat as a design and engineer. This past spring, he worked on an Unmanned Search and Rescue Robot project where he and his team designed and built a robot for simulated human search and rescue.
In competition, McGovern holds the school record in the 400-meter hurdles and was 2021 All-American in the event after placing sixth at the NCAA outdoor Championships. The sophomore is a four-time All-UAA and all-region honoree.