COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University's Ally Distler was named as the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Softball Academic Player of the Year for the second time in her career while leading three first team and nine overall selections to the league's All-Academic team.
 
Distler, a redshirt junior utility player and psychology major with a 4.00 GPA, was joined on the first team by senior business administration major Ava Fugate and graduate student Miranda Pruitt.  The Mavs also had six honor roll selections in Bella Aragon, Myah Arrieta, Dakota DiPaola, Olivia Litzen, Iliana Mendoza and Marisa Nehm.
 
The first team all-academic squad was selected by a vote of the conference's 12 softball sports information directors based on a combination of athletic and academic accomplishments.  Nominees for the first team must have at least a 3.5 GPA although all 13 selections had a 3.73 or higher GPAs with nine of them checking at 3.9 or higher, including four with perfect 4.0's.  Additionally, nominees must have been at their institution for at least one full academic year prior to the season and used a season of eligibility.
 
Honor roll selections must have a 3.30 or higher GPA and meet the other requirements.  Those not selected for the first team automatically qualify for the honor roll.
 
Distler was also named as the 2022 RMAC Academic Player of the Year as a sophomore and tabbed as the RMAC Summit Award Winner this season for having the top GPA of any student-athlete at the RMAC Tournament.  The Littleton, Colorado native redshirted during the 2023 season due to injury but was a major part of the Mavs' RMAC title-winning run this year, hitting 19 home runs, third most in the RMAC, while recording 68 RBIs to co-lead the team and rank second in the conference.  She is ninth in the country for both figures and earned her second first team and third overall All-RMAC honor of her career.
 
She was also tabbed to both the D2CCA and NFCA All-South Central Region teams for the second time.
 
Fugate, a senior from Chehalis, Washington, also picked up second team all-region honors from both organizations and was a Second Team All-RMAC selection.  She holds a 3.92 GPA and had a stellar final collegiate campaign, racking up a school-record matching 27 doubles to rank third in the country in that category.  She also hit .365 and slugged at a .719 clip.  Defensively, Fugate smashed the school-record for double plays, recording 29 and was named as both the NFCA All-South Central and RMAC Gold Glove winner at first base.  She is now a 3-time RMAC All-Academic honoree.
 
Pruitt hails from Joshua, Texas and holds a 3.88 GPA in her master's of business administration program.  A First Team D2CCA All-Region and All-RMAC pick at the designated player position, Pruitt registered 21 home runs this season, equal to the former school-record and second most in the RMAC behind only Arrieta, the new conference and school record-holder, who hit 28 home runs.
 
A native of Joshua, Texas, who graduated from Tarleton State before joining the Maverick program for the 2023 season, Pruitt ranks fifth in the country for home runs and 11^th for slugging percentage at .854, the second highest mark in the RMAC behind only Arrieta's school-record setting 1.027 mark.
 
As a team, the Mavericks went 46-11 overall, winning the RMAC regular season title with a 41-3 conference record.  They then went on to advance to the championship game of the NCAA South Central Regional #2, where their season was ended by UT Tyler, which is now heading to a third straight NCAA Division II Championship Tournament.  The Mavs also hit 123 home runs in 2024, a NCAA Division II record.