The Ohio Northern women's basketball program placed four student-athletes on the Academic-All Ohio Athletic Conference team for the 2018-19 season, the league office announced Wednesday morning.
Juniors Emily Mescher (Maria Stein/Marion Local), Martrina Parks (Columbus/Thomas Worthington), and Kaitlyn Hurd (Buchtel/Nelsonville-York) and sophomore guard Emily Brock (Akron/Revere) each received honors for their efforts in the classroom this season.
To receive Academic All-OAC honors, student-athletes must be a sophomore-or-higher in academic standing, maintain varsity-level status during the season, and hold a minimum 3.50 cumulative grade-point average.
The OAC recognized 121 student-athletes in five sports at the league's 10 institutions this winter. Ohio Northern collected 13 conference academic awards in all.
Mescher, a junior middle childhood education major, is now a two-time Academic All-OAC honoree after receiving similar honors in 2017-18.
On the court, Mescher led the Polar Bears with a 50.7% shooting clip and 6.5 rebounds per game, which ranked seventh and ninth on the OAC leaderboards, respectively. She also ended second on the team with 8.5 points per game and tied for fourth with 1.3 assists per contest after appearing in all 28 games with 19 starts.
Mescher has compiled a 54.2% career field goal percentage to rank third all-time in program history. She has scored 515 points, grabbed 382 rebounds, and registered 65 assists in her three-year career.
Parks, a junior accounting major from Columbus, garnered her first academic accolade after appearing in 18 contests this year.
The third-year forward averaged 6.7 minutes per contest and recorded 1.3 points per outing. She also tallied 25 rebounds, five assists, and two steals during her first season at the varsity level.
Hurd, a junior psychology major from Buchtel, picks up her second consecutive academic honor after receiving the same award last season.
In the 2018-19 campaign, she averaged 3.0 minutes per contest in 14 total appearances. The junior forward recorded 10 points, 11 rebounds, and three blocked shots.
Hurd has now appeared in 45 career games and tallied 53 points, 50 rebounds, eight assists, and seven blocks in three seasons at the varsity level.
Brock, a sophomore business major, recorded her first career honor after appearing in all 28 games with two starts.
The Akron product boasted the best three-point field goal percentage in the OAC this season with a 42.3% clip from long range. She also led the team with 52 made three-pointers and ended fourth in scoring at 6.9 points per contest.
Through two seasons at ONU, Brock has appeared in 48 games with two starts and recorded 232 points, 58 rebounds, 31 assists, and 22 steals. She also owns a 39.4% career three-point field goal percentage, which ranks sixth all-time at Ohio Northern.
The Polar Bears finished the 2018-19 season with a 15-13 overall record and a 7-11 mark in the OAC, which ended seventh in the final league standings. ONU went on a remarkable postseason run that included upsets over No. 2-seeded Baldwin Wallace and No. 3-seeded Marietta and a tight-knit 61-58 loss to John Carroll in the OAC Finals.
