(Portions of this story courtesy of Southwestern University and Texas Lutheran University websites)
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced Thursday its 2019-20 Academic All-District At-Large Team and the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference was represented by three student-athletes, as Southwestern University senior women’s tennis player Mary Cardone, and senior women’s golfer Leilani McDaniel along with Texas Lutheran University senior women’s golfer Summer Swift were all named to the First-Team.
Selected by members of CoSIDA, the program recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances in athletic competition and the classroom. Cardone, McDaniel and Swift are now eligible for election to the CoSIDA Academic All-America At-Large Team, to be announced between June 16-19.
This season, Cardone finished nationally-ranked in women's singles tennis for a fourth consecutive season at No. 33 with a 4-1 record playing exclusively in the No. 1 spot.
Cardone finished her career at Southwestern University as one of the most decorated student-athletes in school history, earning All-American status in tennis and leading the women's soccer team to its first SCAC championship. She also swept the SCAC Elite 19 award, which recognizes the top athletic and academic performer in each sport in both soccer and tennis for the past two years, finishing with a cumulative GPA of 3.881 in Business and Data Science.
McDaniel finished her career at Southwestern with the second-best career scoring average in school history at 80.54, trailing only teammate Emily Campbell. McDaniel was a three-time All-SCAC recipient and the 2019 SCAC Golfer of the Year. She had a 3.92 cumulative GPA.
The women's golf team finished ranked No. 25 in NCAA Division III by GolfStat thanks in part to McDaniel's top-10 finish at the Lady Bulldog Fall Classic to open the season, finishing eighth.
Swift, a Kinesiology major with a 3.92 GPA, is four-year letter-winner for TLU Women's Golf and the 2018 SCAC Individual Champion, was named as the TLU Female Sportsmanship Award Winner for 2019-20. She was a three-time All-SCAC honoree.
In her four-year career with TLU, Swift won three collegiate tournaments and tied for another (losing on a scorecard playoff). She was named an SCAC Women's Golfer of the Week on six different occasions.
Swift has been named to the SCAC Spring Academic Honor Roll three times.
To see the full CoSIDA release, click here.
