Karee, Kiefel and Miller Repeat as CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, Karee Receives Fourth Honor

Karee, Kiefel and Miller Repeat as CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, Karee Receives Fourth Honor

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – For the third consecutive year the Carnegie Mellon University men's cross country and track and field had multiple athletes named College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-Americans. Graduate students Matt Karee (Elmira, N.Y. / Notre Dame) and Bram Miller (Harmony, Pa. / Seneca Valley) along with senior Justin Kiefel (Downingtown, Pa. / Downingtown STEM Academy) each landed a spot on the Men's Cross Country/Track and Field First Team. It marks Kiefel second straight honor on the top team while it is Karee's and Miller's first accolade on the first team. It is the fourth time Karee has been honored in his career after garnering second team recognition his junior season and third team honors after his sophomore campaign. Miller was named to the second team a year ago.

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. He then repeated as an All-American, placing fourth, in the shot put at the 2022 Outdoor Championships giving him four All-American honors for 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 named the 2022 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 also repeated as an All-American at the 2022 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships after placing third in the triple jump. He garnered All-American honors at the 2022 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships after placing second in the same event. 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.