Southland Conference

FRISCO, Texas – Houston Baptist’s Denim Rogers and Stephen F. Austin’s Kelsey Ramirez are the Southland Conference Indoor Track & Field Student-Athletes of the Year, the league announced Friday. Southland yearly awards are presented by GEICO.

Rogers earned his latest honor after an impressive indoor season, where he took the Southland title in the heptathlon event, leading all competitors with 5,571 points, a mark that ranked 17th in the NCAA at the time. The senior qualified for the national championship, where he upstaged himself for a program record 5,653 points for an eighth-place finish and All-America accolades. Rogers completed his undergraduate degree at HBU in December and is currently enrolled in graduate school, holding a 3.41 grade-point average in the Education – Social Studies program.

Ramirez added yet another award to her already impressive resume after closing out the 2021 indoor season with pair of conference titles in the mile and distance medley relay events. She also recorded two second-place finishes in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter events at the Southland Indoor Championships, earning the league’s Outstanding Running Events Performer and Athlete of the Year honors. Ramirez is excellent in the classroom as well and most recently secured a spot on the Dean’s List for the fall semester. She currently holds a 3.87 GPA as a kinesiology major.

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 and outdoor track & field after the conclusion of the outdoor track & field season.