The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has announced that Spring Hill College runners Elizabeth Coppejans, Blakely Duhé, Lynne Fritscher and Cecilia Venker have been named 2009 Daktronics-NAIA Women's Cross Country Scholar-Athletes.

Coppejans (left), a junior from Mobile's McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, majors in Accounting with a minor in Finance.

Duhé (right), also a junior from McGill-Toolen, majors in History with a minor in Pre-Law and qualified for the NAIA National Championships with a 5-kilometer time of 20:35.35 at the GCAC Championships.

 

Lynne Fritscher (left), a junior from Covington, La., majors in Pre-Med Biopsychology with a minor in English.  She also plays on the SHC Women's Tennis team where she has twice won All-Conference recognition.

Venker (right), is a junior Accounting major from St. Louis, Mo.  She placed 21st at the GCAC Championships this Fall with a 5-kilometer time of 22:56.05.

Nominated by each institution's head coach, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and have achieved junior academic status to qualify. This season a total of 254 women's cross country runners were awarded the honor by the NAIA.

Since 1980, Spring Hill College has now had 96 student-athletes win Scholar Athlete recognition.