VILLANOVA, Pa.—Fifth year high jumper Roschell Clayton (Montego Bay, Jamaica) earned a prestigious academic honor on Tuesday afternoon when she was announced as a member of the 2025 Academic All-District Women's Track & Field Team as selected by College Sports Communicators. Clayton is an academic all-district selection for the first time in her career and will move on to the national ballot as a CSC Academic All-America® finalist.
 
Clayton wrapped up a record-breaking collegiate career in March by winning her fourth career BIG EAST title in the high jump. She was named the Outstanding Field Performer at the BIG EAST Championships and graduates as the Villanova record holder in the high jump both indoors (1.88m) and outdoors (1.87m). Clayton is the Wildcats first athlete ever to be a four-time BIG EAST high jump champion and she demonstrated her elite ability on a national level with three career All-America honors. Her top finishes at the NCAA Championships include a tie for fifth place at the 2024 outdoor championships and a tie for sixth place at the 2024 indoor national meet.
 
The first time Clayton set her current school record of 1.88 meters in the high jump was in February 2024 in Boston. She matched the exact mark one month later at the same facility during the NCAA Championships, and later in 2024 became the second athlete in school history (first in the jumps) to win the championship section of a women's individual event at the Penn Relays. She qualified to compete in her native Jamaica's Olympic Trials in the summer of 2024 and was a four-time qualifier for the NCAA East Preliminary meet outdoors.
 
Clayton's four BIG EAST titles came at consecutive meets starting with the 2023 indoor conference championships and extending through the 2025 indoor conference meet. She is one of three field athletes in school history and the second high jumper to post a top-eight finish at the NCAA Championships. Along the way to her national finishes and setting the school records indoors and outdoors, Clayton improved her lifetime personal best by eight centimeters from May 2023 through February 2024.
 
The academic accomplishments for Clayton during her collegiate career are equally impressive to what she achieved in athletic competition. She graduated from Villanova a semester early in December 2023 with a major in Communication and went on to enroll in graduate school and pursue her MBA from the Villanova School of Business during her final three semesters of athletic eligibility. Clayton was named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll for having a marking period GPA of 3.2 or higher in all 10 of her semesters on campus. She was named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team and the BIG EAST All-Academic Team four straight years from 2020-21 through 2023-24, with this year's accolades still to be announced.
 
Clayton won the BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award for women's outdoor track & field in 2024 and was named the PhillySIDA Academic All-Area Performer of the Year in women's track & field the same year. She is a two-time member of the PhillySIDA Academic All-Area Team.
 
The 2025 Academic All-District® Women's Track & Field teams, selected by College Sports Communicators, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the track, in the field, and in the classroom. The CSC Academic All-America® program separately recognizes women's track & field honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA. Academic All-District® honorees were considered for advancement to the CSC Academic All-America® ballot. Student-athletes selected as CSC Academic All-America® finalists will advance to the national ballot to be voted on by CSC members.