FRISCO, Texas – McNeese Cowgirl indoor track and field all-American Grace McKenzie has been named the 2019 Southland Conference Women's Indoor Track and Field Student-Athlete of the Year the league announced on Friday.
 
McKenzie, a junior from Cork, Ireland, compiled a 3.75 grade point average in nursing while performing at a high level on the track.
 
During the indoor season, she earned 2019 NCAA First Team All-American honors in the pentathlon following an eighth place finish at the NCAA Championships with a school and Southland Conference record 4,230 points. That number also set a new Irish National Record.
 
While accumulating her point total at the NCAAs, McKenzie set a new school indoor record in the high jump at 5-feet, 8 ¾-inches.
 
In addition to the school and conference records broken, she set new personal bests in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.57 seconds.
 
McKenzie is the first Cowgirl indoor All-American since the 2014 season when thrower La'Shantena Rounds finished fourth in the weight throw at the NCAA Championships.
 
Abilene Christian's Kai Schmidt was named the men's indoor student-athlete of the year.

The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member universities, votes for student-athletes of the year. The Southland 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 GPA on a 4.0 scale and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.
 
All-Academic teams are named for indoor track & field and outdoor track & field after the conclusion of the outdoor track & field season.