June 22, 2011

FRISCO, Tex. - Heinz Schwarzkopf, Esther Abuto and Brittany Culbertson were named to the Southland Conference All-Academic Team, the league announced Wednesday.

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/compliance administrators from each Southland university. 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 2011 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 VI Selection.