BALLNER MAKES OSU HISTORY WITH FOURTH CAREER ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA HONOR WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY & TRACK
Posted August 12, 2021
STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State cross-country and track and field's Ariane Ballner and Jake Dyer have earned CoSIDA Academic All-America recognition, it was announced today.
With this accomplishment, Ballner becomes the first OSU student-athlete to be named a four-time Academic All-American. Additionally, she is only the second student-athlete in the school's history to be named to the Academic All-America first team on three occasions, joining OSU track and field alumnus Ryan Vail, who earned first-team honors in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Ballner graduated as one of 22 Outstanding Seniors at Oklahoma State in May with a pair of degrees in Management and Marketing. In all but one of the four races she competed in during the 2020 cross-country season, Ballner was a point-scoring finisher and conributed to the Cowgirls' second-place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree, third-place finish at the OSU Invitational and fourth-place finish at the Big 12 Championship.
Dyer was named a second-team Academic All-American, the first such honor of his collegiate career after maintaining a 4.0 GPA en route to graduating in May as a double major in Entrepreneurship and Management.
An all Big-12 performer in the decathlon at the 2021 Big 12 Outdoor Championship, he also received the Dr. Gerald Lage Award in 2021, the top academic honor awarded by the conference.
With Ballner and Dyer added to its total, Oklahoma State tallied eight CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in 2020-21, one shy of the school record nine from 2017-18.
In total, 32 Pokes have been named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in the last five seasons and 99 OSU student-athletes have earned the honor across all sports.
With an established consistency in academic excellence, OSU track and field has now had at least two of its members named to Academic All-America teams in six of the past eight seasons, including a stretch of five consecutive years with this year's honorees.
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