LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Fifty-four student-athletes from 39 different schools have been voted to one of three 2024 NFCA Division III All-America teams, the Association revealed on Wednesday evening during the NCAA Division III Championship banquet at Bear Creek Smokehouse in Marshall, Texas.
Seven of the eight teams who advanced to the NCAA Division III Finals had players earn All-America status, including top-ranked Linfield, which tied Super Regional team and reigning national champ Trine for the most by any institution, with five selections. Host school and participant East Texas Baptist (four players), Belhaven and Tufts (two each), and Case Western Reserve, Rowan and Wisconsin-Oshkosh garnered one honoree apiece among the finalists.
Super Regional team Berry and Regional participant Texas Lutheran also had two players make the list, while a total of 32 teams each had one player chosen.
Region X had the most selections of any region with 12, followed by Region VII with nine, Region IX with eight, and Regions VI and VIII with five. Regions I and V each had four of its players chosen, Region III had three, and Regions II and IV had two apiece.
In total, there are 17 seniors on the All-America squad, 13 juniors, 13 sophomores, seven freshmen and four graduate students.
This is the second season since the renaming of the first-team Utility/Pitcher award to honor the late Joan Joyce, an NFCA Hall of Famer and pioneer of women’s sports. For the second consecutive year, Trine sophomore Debbie Hill has earned that distinction, again excelling at the plate and in the circle. She batted .379 with 37 runs, 50 hits, 17 doubles, 14 home runs, 49 RBI and 27 walks, while also compiling a 14-2 record, 0.91 ERA, 11 complete games, four shutouts, four saves, 115 strikeouts and just 12 walks over 100 innings.
Denison junior Annabelle Calderon is the 2024 Diamond Sports/NFCA Division III Catcher of the Year as the first-team player at that position. She boasted a .982 fielding average with just three errors in 171 defensive chances for the Big Red this season. Calderon also batted a team-leading .495, with 32 runs, 51 hits, 15 doubles, three triples, 12 home runs, 43 RBI, a 1.049 slugging average, .558 on-base percentage and 1.607 OPS across 35 games.
Texas Lutheran sophomore second baseman Caelee Clark earned the New Balance/NFCA Golden Shoe award as Division III’s most prolific base stealer again this season. She blew away her total from last season (66) and the competition with an NCAA-best 87 steals in 2024, which was 35 more than second place Maddie Flanery of LeTourneau, who had 52. Clark’s 2.29 steals per game also led Division III.
Seniors Abby Mace, a Salisbury outfielder, and Ashlyn Strother, a Texas Lutheran pitcher, each earned their fourth All-America honors, with Mace also collecting her fourth straight first-team nod.
Eight others — Belhaven graduate pitcher Kennedy Carruth, Randolph-Macon junior pitcher Gracie Ellis, Berry senior first baseman Morgan Frye, Belhaven graduate third baseman Allie Gordon, Linfield senior pitcher Tayah Kelley, East Texas Baptist senior shortstop Tristen Maddox, Bethel senior pitcher Kayla Simacek and East Texas Baptist senior second baseman Courtney White — are now three-time All-Americans.
Another 12 are All-Americans for the second time, including the Bulldogs’ Clark and the Thunder’s Hill, plus Tufts senior pitcher Sophia DiCocco, Kean junior second baseman Eliza Filus, Berry senior catcher Anna Jackson, Trine senior pitcher Alexis Michon, Williams sophomore pitcher Sadie Leonard, Wisconsin Lutheran senior first baseman Lexi Martin, Case Western Reserve junior pitcher Lexi Miskey, the Linfield junior outfield duo of Kaili Saathoff and Claire Seats, and Luther senior catcher Abby Spore.
The NFCA All-America teams are voted on by the Association’s All-America Committees. In Division III, the committee is comprised of one member head coach from each of the NCAA’s 10 regions. All student-athletes who were nominated by a member head coach and voted to the first, second or third team All-Region squads were eligible for All-America consideration.
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