TOWSON, Md. --- Moravian College senior javelin thrower Mary Kate Duncan has been honored as the 2018 Landmark Conference Senior Scholar-Athlete for Women's Outdoor Track & Field.
The Landmark Conference selects 22 senior scholar athletes each year to recognize the top student-athlete in each sport based on academics and athletics. The honorees must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.20 and are selected by a committee of Landmark Conference officers, athletics directors, senior woman administrators and sports information directors. Chosen at the conclusion of each sport season, the 10 spring honorees are being announced this week.
"Mary Kate is as deserving of this award as anyone we've had in our program," commented Head Coach Jesse Baumann. "She's consistently maintained an exceptional GPA, she's going to be pursuing her master's degree in the fall out in Pittsburgh, and she's obviously been one of the best athletes we've had in our program's history. I've said this myriad times, but you can't ask for any more from a student-athlete than what you see with Mary Kate. She is the carbon copy of what you envision an ideal student-athlete to be."
Duncan is the defending NCAA Division III National Champion in the javelin and is currently ranked third in the nation in the event heading into the 2018 NCAA Division III National Championships on Thursday, May 24 at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She is a two-time All-American with a fourth place finish in 2016 to go with her title last spring. She is competing at the NCAA Championships for the fourth time in her career.
Duncan, who was selected as Moravian's 2018 Co-Senior Female Athlete of the Year, won the 2018 Landmark Conference Champion in the event after being the Landmark Conference runner-up in 2016 and 2017. She was a two-time ECAC Division III Champion, and Duncan earned her third United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Mideast Region honor this season. Duncan's career-best throw of 46.26 meters (151-9) that won the national title ranks tenth in school history with the top nine distances belonging to two-time national champion and two-time Olympian Christina Scherwin '05. This spring, Duncan was selected as the 2018 Lehigh Valley Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Most Outstanding in Field as well as Moravian's Co-Most Outstanding.
Duncan has also excelled in the classroom with a 3.82 GPA while majoring in Public Health. She has been on the Dean's List every semester, and was a member of Moravian's inaugural Chi Alpha Sigma National Athlete Honor Society induction class in April. Duncan was also named to the 2017 CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) Division III Academic All-America Second Team, and is a three-time member of the Landmark Conference Spring Academic Honor Roll.
Duncan is Moravian's 25th Landmark Conference Senior Scholar-Athlete since the conference began in 2007-08, and she is the third women's outdoor track & field student-athlete to be honored, joining Rachel Riggs, who received the honor in 2010, and Abbey Clark, who was selected in 2016.
