COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo senior Katherine Higgins is the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Academic Athlete of the Year, the conference announced Tuesday. Higgins leads a 19-member First Team Academic All-RMAC Team and is one of 187 RMAC Academic Honor Roll members.

Higgins, a Mead, Colorado product, owns a 4.00 grade-point average while pursuing her master’s degree in education. She previously earned her bachelor’s degree in middle school mathematics with a 4.00 GPA.  Higgins was the NCAA’s Elite 90 award recipient at the Outdoor Track & Field Championships. This prestigious accolade is given to those who have excelled at a national championship level in their sport and achieved the highest academic standards among their peers. The Elite 90 is awarded to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 championships.

Higgins was also the NCAA Division II National Champion and the RMAC Champion in the shot put. Higgins won the national title with a personal-best throw of 16.38m (53’ 9”) and the RMAC title with a throw of 16.22m (53’ 2.75”). She also finished second in the discus during the RMAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Higgins was recently named the South Central Region Field Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

The 19-member First Team Academic All-RMAC group saw Western Colorado University junior Allison Beasley earn her third consecutive honor while maintaining a 3.99 GPA as a Computer Science & Graphic Design double major. Colorado School of Mines redshirt junior Margaux Basart and Adams State University junior Maggie  McCleskey also made their second consecutive appearance on the team.

The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Academic Honor Roll recognizes student-athletes in each conference-sponsored sport who academically maintain at least a 3.30 cumulative grade-point average, have completed two consecutive semesters at their current institution, and have used a season of competition.

Each institution’s athletic communications directors nominate student-athletes who academically maintain at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average, along with the other criteria for the Academic Honor Roll, for recognition on the First Team Academic All-RMAC in each sport. The league’s athletic communications directors for that sport vote to compose the First Team Academic All-RMAC and select the Academic Player of the Year. They are not permitted to vote for their own student-athletes.  

About the RMAC
The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, headquartered in Colorado Springs, is a premier NCAA Division II conference with 15 institutions located in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Utah. The RMAC sponsors championships in 22 NCAA Division II sports and has earned 67 national championships and 53 national runners-up since 1992. Founded in 1909, the RMAC is the most historic athletic conference in the western United States and Division II.
 

First Team Academic All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
(as selected by RMAC athletics communications directors)
Student-Athlete	School	Class	GPA	Major	Hometown
Katherine Higgins (24)	CSU Pueblo	Sr.	4.00	M.Ed. Education	Mead, Colo.
Margaux Basart (24)	Colorado School of Mines	RJr.	4.00	Engineering Physics	Des Moines, Iowa
Allison Beasley (3x/24, 23)	Western Colorado	Jr.	3.99	Computer Science & Graphic Design	Westminster, Colo.
Allison Comer	Colorado School of Mines	Sr.	3.93 3.95	B.S. Applied Mathematics & Statistics M.S. Data Science	Naperville, Ill.
Anna Fauske	UCCS	Sr.	3.63	Nursing	Sherwood, Wis.
Jadyn Herron	CSU Pueblo	Jr.	3.97	Social Work	Queen Creek, Ariz.
Lieke  Hoogsteen	Adams State	Jr.	3.99	Biology	Nymegen, Netherlands
Shannon King	Colorado Christian	Gr.	4.00 4.00	B.S. Psychology Clinical Mental Health Counseling (grad)	Arvada, Colo.
Emily LaMena	Colorado School of Mines	RFr.	4.00	Geophysical Engineering	Huntington, N.Y.
Maggie  McCleskey (24)	Adams State	Jr.	4.00	Biology	Louisville, Colo.
Autumn McQuitty	Colorado Mesa	So.	4.00	Mass Communications	Alamosa, Colo.
Brooke Miller	Colorado Mesa	RJr.	3.96	Nursing	Homer, Alaska
Lauren Ocampo	Adams State	So.	3.95	Kinesiology	Las Cruces, N.M.
Rachel Richtman	UCCS	RSr.	3.92 4.00	B.A. Spanish M.A. Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages	Elburn, Ill.
Jenna Ramsey-Rutledge	Colorado School of Mines	RSr.	3.84 4.00	B.S. Applied Mathematics & Statistics M.S. STEM Education	Hutchinson, Kan.
Krissie Sanders	UCCS	So.	3.91	Philosophy	Littleton, Colo.
Grace Strongman	Colorado School of Mines	RJr.	3.99 3.70	B.S. & M.S. Metallurgical & Materials Engineering	Prairie Village, Kan.
Margot Thomas-Gatel	CSU Pueblo	Sr.	3.99	M.S. Biology	Chapet, France
Notes: Gold background indicates RMAC Academic Player of the Year. Previous First Team Academic All-RMAC Honors:  Numbers in parentheses indicate years the student-athlete was previously named First Team Academic All-RMAC. 3x – Third time the student-athlete has received First Team academic All-RMAC honors.