INDIANAPOLIS – UNCG women’s track athlete Ashley Schnell is one of 58 student-athletes nationally to earn one of the NCAA’s winter sports postgraduate scholarships, the organization announced recently.
Twenty-nine male winter sport student-athletes and 29 female winter sport student-athletes earned the scholarships, which are worth $7,500 each. Similar awards are given each year to fall and spring student-athletes, totaling 174 individual winners.
To qualify, student-athletes must excel academically and athletically, be in their final year of eligibility and plan to pursue graduate study. Student-athletes must also maintain at least a 3.2 grade-point average and be nominated by their institution’s faculty athletics representative.
A two-time USTFCCCA All-Academic selection and a third-team Capital One Academic All-American, Schnell graduated with a 4.0 GPA in musical performance. She was the Southern Conference’s Student Athlete of the Week three times during the 2011-12 academic year and earned the league’s Dorothy Hicks Graduate Scholarship.
The Lincoln, Neb., native intends to continue her studies in musical performance by enrolling in graduate school in the fall.
Schnell, who starred for the Spartans in cross country and indoor and outdoor track, concluded her career at the NCAA East Preliminary Round in outdoor track last week.
In indoor track this season, the redshirt senior won SoCon titles in the mile and the distance medley relay, setting league records in both events.
The most decorated female runner in school history, Schnell was the SoCon cross country champion in both 2010 and 2011, taking home SoCon Runner of the Year honors each season. In 2011, she became the first female runner in school history to qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championships, missing All-America honors by just 16 seconds, and helped UNCG to its first-ever SoCon team title.
In outdoor track, Schnell won SoCon titles in the 1,500 meters in each of the last two years.
She finished her career with 10 school records across cross country, indoor track and outdoor track.