ANNVILLE, Pa. - On Wednesday morning, Messiah College student-athletes Alecia Rohrer (women's basketball) and Cassie Cotton (women's swimming) were named the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Senior Scholar-Athletes for their respective sports. The Falcons' two honors came across nine winter sports and, after claiming three honors in the fall, Messiah has now collected five honors during the 2018-19 Academic Year. With 17 members in the MAC, Messiah is the only institution to have claimed more than two Senior Scholar-Athlete Awards this year.
 
The MAC honor is given to one senior student-athlete across both the MAC Commonwealth and MAC Freedom (17 total institutions), essentially making it the most prestigious conference academic honor possible for a senior student-athlete. Only a single nomination for the honor can be made from each member school for each sport, and the winners are selected by a conference committee. An even 50-50 split of academic achievement and academic excellence is considered for each nominee, on both the conference and national, including an assessment of the nominee's cumulative grade point average.
 
Since the inception of the award prior to the 2000-01 season, Messiah leads all MAC institutions with 59 honorees.
 
Below is a summary of the qualifications for each of Messiah's three winners for the winter of 2018-19:
 
Alecia Rohrer - Women's Basketball - 3.82 GPA, Criminal Justice
Rohrer was named the 2019 MAC Commonwealth Player of the Year and to the All-MAC Commonwealth First Team for the second-straight season (2018, 2019). Rohrer was a two-time All-MAC Commonwealth Honorable Mention selection in 2016 and 2017. She was named the 2016 MAC Commonwealth Rookie of the Year. Rohrer led the Falcons to three-straight MAC Commonwealth titles (2017-19), and was named the MAC Commonwealth Championship Most Valuable Player in both 2018 and 2019. This past season, Rohrer was named an WBCA All-American and named D3hoops.com All-America Honorable Mention. She added D3hoops.com All-Region honors. Rohrer also played in the inaugural WBCA All-Star game. She became the first player in program history with 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds (1,017).
 
Rohrer is majoring in criminal justice with an expected graduation date in the spring of 2019. She currently holds a 3.82 GPA and will become a four-time MAC Academic Honor Roll recipient in June. Rohrer has been named to two-straight Women's Basketball Academic All-MAC teams with the ability to become a three-time recipient in June. The senior was named to the Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-American Third Team is past season, while also earned Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District honors.

Cassie Cotton - Women's Swimming - 3.69 GPA, Health and Physical Education (K-12)
Cotton is a five-time MAC individual champion and a 15-time MAC relay champion. Cotton was also an 11-time MAC individual medalist and a 16-time MAC relay medalist during her four seasons. She was named the 2016 MAC Women's Swimming Rookie of the Year. Cotton led the Falcons to four-straight MAC titles (2016-19). The senior went onto the 2018 NCAA Division III Championship where she earned all-American honorable mention honors in the 100-yard butterfly. Cotton is a part of all five MAC Overall and MAC Championship Relay records.
 
Cotton is majoring in health and physical education (K-12) with an expected graduation date in the spring of 2019. She currently holds a 3.69 GPA and will be named to the MAC Academic Honor Roll for a fourth-straight season in June. Cotton has been named to three-straight Women's Swimming Academic All-MAC teams with the ability to be named to a fourth in June. The senior was named a CSCAA Scholar All-American.

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