Alexandria Hackett was named Southland Conference Women’s Cross Country Student-Athlete of the Year. She and four additional Abilene Christian cross country runners also were named to Southland All-Academic teams.
Allie and Michaela Hackett and Diana García-Muñoz each garnered First Team All-Academic recognition while Carnley Graham and Ryan Cleary earned Second Team All-Academic honors. Allie and Michaela and García-Muñoz earned their first team automatic selections after sweeping the top-three places at the Southland Conference Championships. This trio went on to earn all-region status at the NCAA South Central Regional Championships in College Station, just prior to Thanksgiving, Allie and Michaela represented their school and conference at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Louisville.
Michaela cruised through the 6K course in 20:38.4 (91st) and Allie followed close behind with a time of 20:45.9 (107th).
Allie and Michaela have earned Southland All-Academic honors three times in their distinguished careers. Allie previously was voted Southland Conference Women’s Cross Country Student-Athlete of the Year in 2015, while García-Muñoz earned this prize in 2014.
Garcia-Munoz is pursuing her Masters in Accounting and carries a 3.82 GPA. The Phoenix, Arizona, native finished third at the Southland Conference Championships with a mark of 21:07.4. This is the third All-Academic honor of Garcia-Munoz career.
Natives of Cranston, Rhode Island, the Hacketts are both working toward their Masters in Financial Management and each carry a 3.98 grade point average.
Graham scored her first Southland All-Academic honor this fall and holds a 3.91 GPA in environmental sciences. Graham finished sixth at the Southland Championships with a time of 21:25.3 and finished the 6K South Central Regional course in 21:00.6.
Cleary represented the ACU men’s team in being named Second Team All-Academic for the second-consecutive year. He owns a 3.82 GPA majoring in accounting and finished 10th at the league’s championship race with a time of 25:05.7.
All-Academic team is voted on by each of the 13 member schools sports information directors, one coach and one academic/compliance advisor. To be eligible to be nominated the athlete must hold a minimum 3.00 GPA on a 4.00 scale, have completed at least one full academic year at nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s competition.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member universities, votes for the student-athletes of the year. The student-athlete of the year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must have earned at least a 3.2 cumulative GPA on a 4.0 scale at the nominating institution and have demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years of athletics competition.