AUSTIN, Texas— Colorado Mesa University softball student-athletes Preslee Christensen, Ally Distler, Ava Fugate, Marisa Nehm and Miranda Pruitt were all named to the NCAA Division II Academic All-District® Team, which was selected and announced by College Sports Communicators this week.
 
The Mavs' five picks are the maximum number permitted from a single institution.
 
The program recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the diamond and in the classroom. The CSC Academic All-America® program separately recognizes softball honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.
 
To be nominated, student-athletes must have a 3.50 or higher GPA and be at least a sophomore, both academically and athletically.  For softball, they also must have also played in at least 90 percent or started at least 66 percent of their team's games.  Pitchers can also qualify by throwing at least 25 innings or making 17 appearances.
 
Four of the Mavs' five selections in Christensen, Distler, Fugate and Pruitt have also been chosen to appear on the CSC Academic All-America® ballot, which will be selected by a vote of CSC members.  First-, second and third-team Academic All-America® honorees will be announced on June 18.
 
Distler, a 2022 Academic All-District pick, and Fugate, a 2023 selection, are repeat selections and had also been recently named to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's All-Academic First Team alongside Pruitt.  Distler was named as the RMAC Academic Player of the Year for the second time in her career.
 
A senior academically and redshirt junior athletically, Distler completed her bachelor's degree in psychology this spring with a 4.00 GPA and was a Second Team CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2022 before redshirting last year due to injury.  In 2024, the Littleton, Colorado native earned Second Team Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) All-America honors at the utility position.
 
She was also a First Team D2CCA All-South Central Region pick and earned second team all-region honors from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) as well.  She was also tabbed as the RMAC Summit Award Winner for having the highest GPA of any student-athlete at the conference tournament.
 
Playing mostly at the catcher and left field positions while occasionally seeing time at third base, Distler ended 2024 with 19 home runs to rank ninth nationally and tied Arrieta for the team lead in RBIs with 68 to rank amongst the nation's top 10 in that category as well.  She also finished the campaign with a .345 batting average and .731 slugging percentage and was named to the First Team All-RMAC squad for the second time in 2024 after earning second team honors as a freshman in 2021.
 
She plans to return for her final season of eligibility as a graduate student in 2024-25.
 
Christensen, who hails from Heber City, Utah was named as the RMAC Pitcher of the Year after her debut season at CMU but was not eligible for RMAC All-Academic honors as a first-year student-athlete in the conference.  The junior who transferred from Utah State-Eastern, is majoring in accounting and holds a 3.68 overall GPA, including a 3.94 mark in her first semester at CMU. 

Christensen also picked up Second Team All-South Central Region honors from both the D2CCA and NFCA All-Region honors after finishing the 2024 season with a 19-5 record and 2.32 ERA to lead the conference in both wins and ERA.  She also lead the RMAC in strikeouts per seven Innings (6.1) and called third strikes (45) while ranking third in total strikeouts with 120.
 
Fugate, a senior first baseman from Chehalis, Washington, also put together an impressive 2024 season.  A business administration major with a 3.92 GPA, Fugate matched a CMU single-season record by recording 27 doubles this season, the third most in the country.  She also hit .365 with 12 home runs and 49 RBIs while scoring 57 runs from the No. 2 spot in the potent Maverick lineup.  She was a Second Team All-Region selection by both the NFCA and D2CCA and Earned Second Team All-RMAC honors as well.
 
Fugate also received the conference's Gold Glove award at the first base position after recording a stellar .994 fielding percentage while registering 29 double plays to smash a school-record.
 
Pruitt, a graduate student from Joshua, Texas holds a 3.88 GPA in her sport management graduate program and was a First Team D2CCA All-American at the designated player position as the lone Maverick to earn first team honors from that organization. 
 
She capped her 6-year collegiate career, which began at now Division I Tarleton State, by hitting 21 home runs in 2024 to rank fifth in the country.  She also finished second in the RMAC and 11^th nationally in slugging percentage at .854.  Pruitt also had a .390 batting average and recorded 13 doubles and 64 RBIs, as the RMAC's fourth best run- producer.  She was also a First Team All-RMAC pick in 2024 and earned Second Team NFCA All-Region honors while being named to the RMAC All-Tournament team for the second straight season.
 
Nehm, a sophomore pitcher from Grand Junction, Colorado, holds a 3.85 GPA while majoring in biological sciences.  She was named to the RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll in her first year of eligibility for that honor and finished the 2024 campaign with a 6-0 record, a save and a 4.17 ERA.  She appeared in 21 games and completed two of her four starts while throwing 53 2/3 innings, a majority of which were out of the bullpen.
 
As a team, the Mavericks set a NCAA Division II record by hitting 123 home runs and led the country in scoring average, putting up 8.26 runs per game.  They finished with a 46-11 overall record and won the RMAC's Regular Season title, their seventh in the last eight full seasons, with a 41-3 record before advancing to the championship game of their NCAA South Central Regional tournament.
 
The Division II and III CSC Academic All-America® programs are partially financially supported by the NCAA Division II and III national governance structures to assist CSC with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2022-23 Divisions II and III Academic All-America® programs.