| Dana Mecke |
SAN ANTONIO ? The honors continue to roll in for UTSA junior Dana Mecke as she was named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA)/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VI first team on Thursday.
It marked the second consecutive first-team honor for Mecke, a Smithson Valley High product who carries a 3.93 grade-point average in mechanical engineering. She was one of 10 student-athletes from the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas on the first team and will appear on the All-America ballot to be voted upon later this month.
Additionally, Mecke was one of six Southland Conference student-athletes on the two all-district squads, joining second-team selections Leslie Bourgeois of Nicholls, Dorcus Kapkai of Southeastern Louisiana and Heather Bullin, Jannah Evans and Katie Evans of Texas State.
Mecke twice earned the league’s top award for academic and athletics success combined this year, as she was named SLC Student-Athlete of the Year for women’s cross country and indoor track & field before taking a redshirt during the outdoor campaign.
Last fall, she captured the program’s first individual conference crown in cross country since 1996 in winning the SLC Championship with a 6,000-meter time of 21:39, her seventh victory of the year. Mecke was honored as the SLC Athlete of the Year in addition to garnering SLC Athlete of the Week accolades five times during the season.
Mecke was tabbed SLC Indoor Outstanding Track Performer following a career performance at the conference championships in February. She swept the 800 meters (2:13.00) and mile (5:00.35) and anchored the distance medley relay team to gold en route to scoring a team-high 22.5 points at the two-day meet.
A three-time SLC All-Academic Team selection, Mecke also collected this year’s UTSA Academic Athlete of the Year honor and Pat Clynes Letterman’s Award, and has been named to the SLC Commissioner’s Honor Roll and UTSA President’s (4.0 gpa) or Dean’s (3.75 gpa) list five times.
For a complete list of the men's and women's all-district squads, please click here.