All-Academic Teams

FRISCO, Texas – Lamar Sr. Tom Wade and Stephen F. Austin Sr. Carrie Hahn have been named the 2012 Southland Conference Outdoor Track and Field Student-Athletes of the Year, the league office announced Tuesday in conjunction with the release of the 2011-12 All-Academic Cross Country and Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Teams.
 
Southeastern Louisiana's Shannon Grover and Brittany Pfantz were each named to the conference's All-Academic team. It is the second-consecutive year Pfantz has earned the honor.
 
Grover, a native of New Orleans, won the men's 200-meter dash title in February at the Southland Indoor Championships. He ran the distance in 21.50 seconds, besting a fellow Lion to take home the title. The next week, Grover set the school record in the 200 (21.34 sec) at the NCAA Indoor Qualifier in Birmingham, Ala.
 
Pfantz, a native of DeRidder, La., enjoyed a record-setting year as she broke both the school's indoor and outdoor pole vault records. She set the indoor record en route to winning the women's pole vault title (13 feet, 1.5 inches) at the Southland Indoor Championships in February. Pfantz set the outdoor record (13-01.75) at the NSU Invitational, April 6, in Natchitoches, La.
 
Wade, a native of Isle of Wight, England, was named a second-team All-American after finishing 13th in the 3,000- meter steeplechase at the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Championships. The kinesiology major boasts a 4.00 grade-point average and was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team. Wade won the 1,500-meters at the conference championships with a time of 3:45. He is the second Lamar runner to be named student-athlete of the year this season, joining Matt Johnsen, who earned the award for the cross country and indoor seasons.
 
Hahn is also a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection and was the recipient of the F.L. McDonald  Postgraduate Scholarship in May. The Leander, Texas, native, achieved a 4.00 GPA in kinesiology and was named to the Dean's List twice. She recorded a sixth-place finish in the high jump, helping Stephen F. Austin to its fourth consecutive outdoor title. The three-time all-conference honoree has scored in every Southland championship meet since arriving on campus. She plans to continue her education at Stephen F. Austin with a master's degree in physical therapy.
 
Joining the 2012 student-athletes of the year on the all-academic teams, which include student-athletes who competed in cross country in the fall, indoor track and field in the winter and outdoor track and field in the spring, are 17 men and 30 women.
 
UTSA earned a league-best 14 combined men's and women's all-academic honors, while Stephen F. Austin had eight, Lamar recorded five and Sam Houston State and UT Arlington boasted four honorees apiece. Texas State and Northwestern State each sent three student-athletes to the all-academic teams, McNeese State, Southeastern Louisiana and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi honored two and Central Arkansas and Nicholls State had one.
 
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 12 member schools, voted for the student-athletes of the year. The student-athlete of the year award is presented to the one male and one female student-athlete who achieve excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees shall have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated achievement in athletics for at least two years at the nominating institution.
 
The all-academic teams are voted on by the head coaches, sports information directors and academic/counselors from each Southland institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team's competition to qualify for the all-academic squad.
 
The 2012 Southland Conference Cross Country and Track and Field All-Academic Teams are comprised of student-athletes that competed in cross country, indoor track and field and/or outdoor track and field.
 
Student-athletes earn automatic qualification onto the Southland Conference All-Academic Team if they maintain a GPA of 3.0 in addition to earning either first-team all-conference honors in any of the three seasons and/or a CoSIDA Academic All-District Selection.