June 21, 2012

ARLINGTON, Texas - UT Arlington softball senior Courtney Zink was named to the Southland Conference All-Academic first teams, the league office announced Thursday.

The starting shortstop from Highlands, Texas received a perfect 4.0 in her last semester as a Kinesiology major at UT Arlington.

UTSA sophomore Molly Fichtner has been named the Southland Conference Softball Student-Athlete of the Year, the league office announced Thursday in conjunction with the release of the All-Academic Softball Teams.

Fichtner, a native of Houston, Texas (Clear Brook), carries a 3.93 grade-point average in kinesiology and is the second softball student-athlete of the year from UTSA, joining three-time winner Jessica Rogers, who took the distinction in 2004, 2005 and 2007. The Roadrunner shortstop followed her freshman of the year campaign by earning first-team all-conference honors as a sophomore and leading UTSA with 61 hits. Fichtner batted .365 on the year with three home runs, 27 runs and 18 RBI. She ranked third in the conference in hits, fifth in batting average, sixth in on-base percentage (.425) and total bases (78). In 167 at-bats on the season, Fichtner struck out only nine times, ranking her in the top-50 in the nation as one of the toughest players to strike out. She is only one of four Roadrunners to start every game this season and made the move from catcher to shortstop after 11 games.

Eleven student-athletes make a return appearance to the all-academic teams, including UT Arlington senior Courtney Zink and Northwestern State senior Kelee Grimes, who are both making their third consecutive showing.

Seven members received automatic selections by virtue of being either a first-team all-conference selection or voted to the CoSIDA academic all-district team.

Three student-athletes were selected to the CoSIDA academic all-district team. Central Arkansas senior Nicole Beals and junior Melissa Bryant and McNeese State sophomore Alanna DiVittorio were named to the All-District VI team while Stephen F. Austin sophomore Elizabeth Arana earned a spot on the All-District VII team. Fichtner, Sam Houston State junior Tori Benavidez and Texas State senior Chandler Hall earned their spot on the team after picking up first-team all-conference honors. Beals and Bryant were also named to the first-team all-conference team to go along with their CoSIDA academic all-district selection.

Three schools each placed four student-athletes on the all-academic teams, including Central Arkansas, Sam Houston State and Texas State. McNeese State had three members while Northwestern State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christ both had two. Nicholls State, Southeastern Louisiana, Stephen F. Austin, UT Arlington and UTSA each had one apiece.

Established in the 2002-03 academic year, the conference honors one student-athlete from each of the 17 championship sports who achieves excellence in academics, athletics and community/campus service.

The student-athlete of the year, selected by the league's awards committee, will have attained athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution, possess at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA and demonstrated extracurricular service at her campus and or community.

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.

2012 Southland Conference Softball All-Academic Teams

^2012 Southland Softball Student-Athlete of the Year

¹Automatic Selection

²Two-time all-academic selection

³Three-time all-academic selection