SAN ANTONIO – UTSA has placed eight student-athletes on the 2023-24 Academic All-District Men's and Women's Track & Field/Cross Country Teams as selected by College Sports Communicators (CSC). Sarah Bell, Gabriel Green, Ayumi Kobayashi, Dennis Phillips, Mike Roth, Isabella Simonelli, Brooke Veltman and Maren Wilms were all recognized for their combined efforts in competition and in the classroom with a spot on this prestigious team. Phillips, Roth and Wilms are each repeat honorees on the team.
Phillips boasts a 3.59 cumulative GPA as a Cum Laude graduate this spring in Kinesiology after initially transferring to UTSA from TCU ahead of the 2022 season. The Little Elm, Texas, graduate with honors earned three appearances on the UTSA Honor Roll and two Dean’s List nods, while also earning a C-USA Commissioner's Academic Medal and twice earning a spot on the C-USA Honor Roll. Phillips anchored the Roadrunners' 4x100m relay team to a gold medal at the 2023 C-USA Outdoor Championships, following up a 4x400m 2023 C-USA Indoor gold, while also part of the 2023 school record-setting 4x200m relay team clocked at 1:21.49 to vault UTSA into the 13th spot on the all-time collegiate list. This season, he helped the 4x100m to a silver medal at The American Outdoor Championships on a school-record 38.89 clocking, also finishing eighth individually in the 100m. An untimely injury at the championships cut his season short. He also ranks 28th in the final national 100m standings and logged a career-best 10.12 time that appears at third on UTSA’s all-time list.
A junior this season, Roth maintains a 3.55 cumulative GPA in Politics and Law and is a four-time UTSA Honor Roll awardee. In 2023, he was named to the Conference USA All-Academic Team and appeared twice on the C-USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll. A native of St. Thomas, Ontario, Roth was the 2023 C-USA Indoor Championships High Point Scorer of the Meet (20.5) after winning the 400m on a 46.42 school record, anchored the 4x400m to the gold medal and earned silver in the 200m. At the 2023 C-USA Outdoor Championships, he doubled-up with another 400m title and was part of the record-setting 4x200m relay squad at the Texas Relays. At the 2024 American Athletic Conference Indoor Championships, Roth earned a pair of silver medals, in the 400m on a 46.44 clocking and anchored the 4x400m squad to a 3:11.44 – as well as sixth individually in the 200m. At the AAC Outdoor Championships at Park West, he was seventh in the 200m. Roth anchored the 4x400m quartet to a nationals-qualifying 11th-place finish and a 3:03.72 UTSA record at the NCAA West First Rounds in Fayetteville, Ark., going on the finish 15th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., capturing Second Team All-American honors.
Wilms is now a two-time graduate with a perfect 4.0 cumulative GPA through her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in Marketing, and spring completion of her Master of Arts in Economics. The Melsbach, Germany double-grad completed her undergraduate degree with Summa Cum Laude honors and was a five-time member of the UTSA President’s List, four-time C-USA Commissioner's Academic Medal recipient and C-USA Honor Roll member. She was 16th in the pentathlon at the American Athletic Conference Indoor Championships this year, earning 3,314 points and ranking 33rd in the South Central Region. Last season, Wilms earned seventh in the heptathlon with 4,633 points at the C-USA Outdoor and eighth in the pentathlon with 3,261 points indoors. Wilms was the 2022 C-USA heptathlon silver medalist and ranks as the program's No. 5 all-time performer in the pentathlon (3,550). In total, Wilms collected five top-5 conference finishes in the multi-events across her five-year Roadrunner career.
Bell has tallied a 3.73 cumulative GPA as a Psychology Major across two seasons as a Roadrunner. A graduate of San Antonio’s O’Connor High School, she has been named to the UTSA President’s List one time and twice as a member of UTSA’s Honor Roll. Logging the 48th-best indoor 800m time in the South Central Region at 2:14.71, Bell finished 10th at The American Indoor Championships and was the third leg helping the Roadrunners’ 4x400m squad to a sixth-place 3:43.91 time at the AAC Outdoor Championships in early May. Holding the top UTSA 800m time this season (2:13.70), Bell was also 11th at AAC Outdoors this season.
Wrapping up his four-year UTSA career as a Magna Cum Laude graduate with honors, Green maintained a 3.83 cumulative GPA in Cyber Security. A San Antonio Madison High graduate making five appearances on the UTSA Dean’s List and two honors on the President’s List, Green garnered three Conference USA Commissioner’s Academic Medals and three C-USA Honor Roll laurels. In 2023, Green was fourth at the Conference USA Outdoor Championships in the 400m hurdles and seventh in the 2022 iteration with a career-best 52.77 clocking that weekend. This season, he was 12th in the 400m hurdles at The American Outdoor meet and ranked 36th in the South Central Region in the event.
Wrapping up her two-career and set to graduate soon, Kobayashi carries a 3.80 cumulative GPA in Kinesiology and is fresh off a fourth-place 100m hurdles finish at the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships, qualifying for the NCAA West First Rounds where she logged a career-best 13.29 clocking – the second-best time in program history. A Funabashi, Japan transplant, Kobayashi was also sixth at the AAC Indoors in the 60m hurdles, going a career-best 8.49 seconds. She has been on the UTSA President’s List twice and Dean’s List once. At last year’s Conference USA Outdoor Championships, she registered a fourth-place 100m hurdles finish as well.
Finishing off her second year since transferring from Southern Miss and her career at UTSA, Simonelli is a now a Summa Cum Laude graduate with honors, sporting a 3.92 cumulative GPA in Kinesiology. She was a two-time President’s List and two-time Dean’s List honoree in her short time in San Antonio. The Goldie, Australia native wraps things up in possession of the UTSA weight throw record at 19.29m (63-3.5), recorded while earning the silver medal at the 2024 American Athletic Conference Indoor Championships, also placing her name second in program history in the hammer throw at the UTSA Invitational on a 58.06m (190-6) measurement. Simonelli finished fourth in the hammer and sixth in discus at the AAC Outdoor Championships, qualifying for the NCAA West First Rounds for the first time at UTSA. She also finished seventh in the discus at the 2023 Conference USA Outdoor Championships.
Veltman registered a 3.73 cumulative GPA in Management and graduated this spring with Cum Laude honors. Another local Roadrunner from MacArthur High, Veltman appeared on the UTSA Dean’s List three times and Honor Roll twice. She ranked 27th in the South Central Region 10,000m standings with a career-best time of 39:13.20 and was also 43rd in the 5,000m at 18:21.88. She finished 22nd in the 10k at the AAC Outdoor Championships this spring at Park West. Veltman competed at the NCAA Cross Country South Region Championships in each of the past two seasons, coming in 74th at the 2023 AAC Cross Country Championships and 46th at the 2023 Conference USA Cross Country Championships.
Academic All-District honorees advance to the CSC Academic All-America® ballot. First-, second- and third-team Academic All-America honorees will be announced July 9 (women) and July 10 (men).
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