MIAC Fall Academic All-ConferenceWINONA, Minn. - Eleven Saint Mary's University fall student-athletes earned Academic All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference recognition, it was announced Friday.
The MIAC saw its total of fall Academic All-Conference honorees rise for the fourth-straight year with its new record total of 359, which bettered 2014's previous record of 356. That continued the upward trend of honorees, starting with 301 in 2011, 330 and 2012 and 334 in 2013. The Academic All-Conference awards are a combined recognition of excellence in academics and athletics, designed to honor the very best all-around student-athletes in the conference each year.To earn Academic All-Conference honors, MIAC student-athletes must be a sophomore, junior or senior with a minimum cumulative grade-point-average (GPA) of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale, while also meeting sport-specific athletic requirements, making the award a perfect blend of the balanced excellence championed by the MIAC and NCAA Division III.
Athletically, student-athletes in team sports must compete in 50 percent of their team's regular-season varsity contests. The team sports eligible were football, volleyball, men's soccer and women's soccer. Cross country student-athletes were required to finish in the overall top 100 or their team's top seven at the 2015 MIAC Cross Country Championship.
The men's soccer team led the way for Saint Mary's, boasting five student-athletes on the Academic All-MIAC Team, while the Cardinal women's soccer team landed three student-athletes.
Joe Bosco (Elk Grove Village, Ill.),
Sean Butcher (Cave Creek, Ariz.),
Shawn Gilbert (Rice Lake, Wis.),
Kareem Rassas (Lake In The Hills, Ill.), and Michael Tabar (Skokie, Ill.) all earned academic honors for the men's soccer team team, while
Caroline Blackwood (Norwalk, Ohio),
Emily Loof (Colorado Springs, Colo.), and
Emma Schaefer (Roseville, Minn.) represented the women's soccer team.
Cardinal volleyball players
Brittney Hanson (Janesville, Iowa) and
Sara Lind (Peterson, Minn.), along with
Allie Thiel (Burr Ridge, Ill.) of the women's cross country team, were also named to the all-academic team.
MIAC Academic All-Conference teams are announced twice annually, after the completion of both the fall and spring academic semesters. The MIAC Winter/Spring 2015-16 Academic All-Conference selections will be announced in late June.
