ST. LOUIS – Senior
Mandi Roemmich (West Des Moines, Iowa) of the Drake University softball team has been selected one of the Missouri Valley Conference's featured student-athletes in the MVC Scholar-Athlete Spotlight presented by Enterprise Bank and Trust Company, the conference office announced Wednesday, April 29.
The recognition is the second Valley award in as many weeks for Roemmich, who last week was named the MVC State Farm Good Neighbor award recipient for Drake. This is the second time she has been featured in the MVC Scholar-Athlete Spotlight with the first coming in March, 2019.
Roemmich's standout career on-and-off the softball field ended abruptly in mid-March due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. She batted .333 with five doubles, 14 runs batted in and scored a team-high 18 runs in the shortened 2020 season.
In four seasons, Roemmich helped Drake win 124 games, become the first MVC program to sweep back-to-back MVC regular season and tournament titles in 2018 and 2019 and earn consecutive NCAA Tournament berths for the first time in school history.
Roemmich was the first Drake softball player to be named MVC Player of the Year when she won the top award in 2018. She was a three-time All-MVC choice, who made 186 starts at shortstop, and finished her career at or near the top of several all-time statistical categories at Drake. Roemmich leaves as the all-time leader in career doubles with 43 and was just six hits and six runs from tying the program's all-time mark in both categories, finishing with 215 hits and 132 runs scored. Her hits total ranks third all-time and her runs total is the second most in school history. She holds the single-season runs and at-bats records with 54 and 192, respectively, both in the 2019 season and is second all-time in career batting average with a .357 mark.
An excellent student who holds a 4.00 GPA in biology, Roemmich was named to the 2019 CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team and twice was selected to the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team. Roemmich earned the MVC Elite 17 academic award two times. Roemmich will start dental school this fall at the University of Iowa.
She volunteered her time in the Drake and Des Moines communities, including serving as a Drake SAAC representative and across the metro with ALS Iowa, United Sports Volleyball with Special Olympics Iowa, Courage League Sports, Meals from the Heartland and Lutheran Church of Hope.
To qualify for the MVC Scholar-Athlete Spotlight, student-athletes must carry a cumulative grade-point average of 3.20, completed at least one academic year at a Valley institution and must be at least a sophomore in academic standing.
Redshirt freshmen and first-year junior college transfers are not eligible. In addition to the academic qualifications, student-athletes are evaluated on their campus involvement and community service.
