WAC All-Academic Awards Announced

DENVER - The Western Athletic Conference announced that eight BYU softball players earned Academic All-WAC honors, a program record for most academic all-conference honorees in a season.

Seniors Tiffany Messerschmidt and Stacie Toney, juniors Bailie Hicken and Alexandra Hudson, sophomores Tori Almond and Carly Duckworth and freshmen Anna Hudson and Caroline Umphlett were each honored.

BYU won 45 games this year, tied for second-most in team history, on its way to winning the WAC Tournament and reaching its eighth-consecutive NCAA Regional.

BYU softball had seven players named Academic All-Conference in 2000 and 2001 while members of the Mountain West Conference, the most honorees in a single season until this year.

Messerschmidt, an exercise and wellness major, has a 3.11 GPA and finished her career ranked in the BYU top-10 in four different categories, including on base percentage, batting average, walks and runs scored. Toney, named an Academic All-American earlier this month, is also an NFCA All-Region performer who was second on the team with 44 RBI and 94 total bases while majoring in elementary education with a 3.77 GPA.

An applied physics major, Bailie Hicken played in 36 games last season and has a 3.39 GPA. She is currently applying to various medical schools around the country. Hudson, a rightfielder who played in 54 games in 2012, has a 3.22 GPA in psychology and was honored for the third-straight season.

Almond was named All-Region and All-WAC in 2012 and is majoring in exercise and wellness with a 3.19 GPA. Duckworth, a management major with a 3.60 GPA, started in 36 games for the Cougars this past year. Both players were named to the MWC All-Academic honor roll in 2011.

In the freshmen/transfer category, Anna Hudson joined her sister, Alexandra, on the honor list with a 3.36 GPA while starting at catcher for the Cougars for a portion of the 2012 season. Umphlett, who won five games and had two saves in her first collegiate season, has a 3.14 GPA.

To be eligible, a student-athlete must have completed at least one academic year, have at least a 3.00 cumulative grade point average and have participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s contests.

The 2012 academic all-WAC baseball, softball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis and men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams were announced in addition to the academic all-WAC freshmen/transfer teams for all sports.  A total of 312 spring student-athletes were named to the list, while 317 freshmen and transfers were added for a total of 629 student-athletes.

Complete list of WAC spring Academic All-Conference honorees