Landra Stewardson honored as ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America
AUSTIN, Texas -- For the first time in her career, Texas women's track and field senior Landra Stewardson was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America women's track and field/cross country second-team. The 2007 Big 12 runner-up in the 10K and top five all-time performer in Texas history carried a perfect 4.0 grade point average in kinesiology. Stewardson reached the height of her college career during the 2006-07 cross country and track and field seasons. She scored during every race she competed in during the fall season, and was one of three Longhorns selected to the 2006 Academic All-Big 12 Cross Country First-Team. In the spring, Stewardson registered a seventh-place at the 2007 Penn Relays Carnival in Philadelphia on April 26, and made her mark in the UT record books with the fifth fastest time on UT's all-time top 10 Longhorn performers' list (35:38.51). She neared that lifetime best mark with a Big 12 runner-up performance (35:59.84) at the outdoor championships meet. With the help of Texas women's track and field head coach Bev Kearney and first-year assistant coach Steve Sisson, Stewardson lowered her lifetime-best in the 10K by four minutes and cut 30 seconds off her 3,000- and 5,000-meter career times. Stewardson (Detroit, Texas) joins Texas exes Tracy Wong and Erin Sims on the list. Wong was elected in 1983, and Sims was a third-team selection in 2002-03 (3.5 grade point average in art history). The Academic All-America program annually honors over 1,600 student-athletes who have succeeded at the highest level on the playing field and in the classroom. Individuals are selected through voting by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), a 2,000-member organization consisting of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports. To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Stewardson is the fifth and final Longhorns student-athlete to earn CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America honors in 2006-07. The other UT honorees include senior Donovan Kilmartin (track & field, first team, petroleum engineering major); senior Katie Robinson (at-large team/women's swimming, second team, kinesiology major); sophomore Bradley Suttle (baseball, second team, business major); and junior Mary Yarrison (at-large team/diving, second team, English major).
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