Friday, June 3, 2011

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - The senior tandem of Kara McCartney (Elgin, Iowa) and Casey McDermott (Newton, Iowa) garnered All-Missouri Valley Conference Women's Track And Field Scholar-Athlete honors when the league announced its annual accolades.

A marketing major, McCartney boasts a 3.6 grade-point average and was tabbed a scholar-athlete selection for the second time in her career. McCartney has also twice been awarded the MVC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award (2008-09 and 2009-10).

McCartney posted a personal best at the State Farm MVC Indoor Track And Field Championship in the 800, clocking in at 2:14.00 en route to a fifth-place finish.

Owning a 3.47 GPA majoring in psychology, McDermott is a three-time track scholar-athlete and two-time cross-country scholar-athlete. A year ago, she was named a U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division I Track & Field All-Academic honoree and was awarded the 2009-10 MVC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award.

McDermott, the school record holder in the steeplechase, had an outstanding senior campaign for the Bulldogs. During the month of April, she won events in back-to-back-to-back weeks cumulating with a steeplechase victory at the Musco Twilight.

McDermott turned in a pair of fourth-place finishes at the outdoor conference meet where she finished fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and the 1500 with a season-best time of 4:30.63.