FRISCO, Texas -- Southeastern Louisiana senior Henry Rop and Stephen F. Austin junior Stephanie Ganter have been named the Toyota/Southland Conference Men's and Women's Cross Country Student-Athletes of the Year, the league office announced Tuesday.
Rop, a native of Kapsabet, Kenya, claims his second consecutive cross country student-athlete of the year award. Rop joins former award winners - Shadrack Songok of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (2007-08) and Rodney Joseph of Stephen F. Austin (2005-06) - as the only runners in conference history to be named the men's cross country student-athlete of the year two times.
Majoring in health and education promotion, Rop holds a 3.37 grade-point average. Arguably the league's best distance competitor, Rop won three consecutive meets this fall, finished in the top 10 at the Southland championships for a second consecutive season at sixth (25:07) in the 8-kilometer run, and finished 16th at the NCAA Regionals in Waco, Texas in the 10k (30:52).
Ganter, the first Ladyjack to be named cross country student-athlete of the year, is also the only runner in Southland history named freshman of the year in cross country and both indoor and outdoor track and field. A 3.94 biology major, Ganter was instrumental in bringing SFA its league-leading sixth cross country title with a fifth-place finish (21:44) in the 6-kilometer event at the Southland championships. A native of McKinney, Texas, Ganter earned all-region honors with a 13th place finish (21:05) at the NCAA regionals in Waco and was the first Southland runner to cross the finish line.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 12 member universities, votes for the student-athletes of the year. The student-athlete of the year award is presented to the one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees shall have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.
Included in Toyota's support of the Southland Conference's Academic Awards Program is the F.L. McDonald Postgraduate Scholarship, the All-Academic Teams, the Student-Athlete of the Year, the Scholar-Athlete Award and the Commissioner's Honor Roll.
Cross country does not select an all-academic team until after the conclusion of the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons.
