Tommie Sports - Women's Track and Field
WTF's Theisen, Arola make Academic All-America
June 19, 2009St. Thomas distance ace Katie Theisen and sprinter Nikki Arola are among 45 athletes voted to the ESPN the Magazine College Division Academic All-America team for women's track and field/cross country.
Theisen (SR-Elko/New Prague), shown at right, has a 4.00 gpa in Biology and was a repeat first-team honoree. Arola (JR-Chisholm), who has a 3.97 gpa in Psychology, made Acadenic All-America for the first time.
Theisen is a six-time All-American, including an NCAA runner-up placing in the steeplechase last month in a conference record time of 10:27. She anchored UST's distance medley relay to runner-up NCAA indoor finishes in 2008 and 2009. She also anchored that quartet to first place at the 2009 Drake Relays -- the conference's first relays win at Drake in 77 years.
Theisen, who is headed to medical school at the University of Minnesota, helped the Toms win 11 of a possible 12 MIAC team titles in CC, indoor and outdoor track on her career. She contributed to 263 team points in eight career conference track and field meets. She also improved each year from 71st, 36th, 20th and 13th in her four NCAA cross country championship races. She was a nine-time MIAC Athlete of the Week in her three spoirts. An NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient, a Goldwater Scholar and a CoSIDA Academic All-American, Theisen also has a deep campus- and community-service resume. She was named College Sporting News' Senior Female Student-Athlete of the Year from the MIAC and will represent the conference in the NCAA Woman of the Year program.
Arola was named the Outstanding Women's Track Athlete of last month's MIAC Championships. She contributed 41 points as St. Thomas rallied from a 40-point deficit on the final day to capture its 23rd MIAC team title in 25 seasons. Arola won the 200-meter dash (25.60) and 400-meter dash (57.32) and ran on the winning 4x100 (48.57) and 4x400 relays (3:51.56, meet record). She also ran the 100-meter dash and placed eighth. She ran in nine prelim or final races over two days. St. Thomas is 6-for-6 in MIAC team crowns indoors and outdoors in Arola's era. She has contributed to 18 MIAC individual or relay championships in the last five MIAC indoor and outdoor meets. She's a two-time All-American on the indoor distance medley relay and ran on the Tommies' first-place distance medley team in April at the Drake Relays. She's also a three-time MIAC Athlete of the Week winner since March 2008.
Six Tommie student-athlete made CoSIDA Academic All-America in 2008-09 bringing the institution's all-time total to 64. That includes 44 recipients in the last 10 years. That puts St. Thomas in the top 20 of all colleges and universities for most AAAs in the span.
Theisen's and Arola's awards give Tommie women's track/CC five Academic All-Americans in the last five seasons.
In all, 45 athletes were honored in the College Division on three 15-woman teams from Division II, III and NAIA schools.
Sophomores, junior and seniors with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.30 or better are eligible to be nominated. The voting is conducted by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and covers academics, athletics and campus and community service.
Click here to view complete women's track/CC Academic All-America team for Universoty and College Divisions:
