Feb. 17, 2005

WACO, Texas - Baylor senior post Steffanie Blackmon (Dallas, Texas/Rowlett HS) has been selected first team ESPN All-Academic District VI by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Thursday, and is now eligible for national Academic All-American honors.

Blackmon earned second team Academic All-District honors last season and is the first Lady Bear basketball player to be named to the first team and advance to the national ballot.

Blackmon is a business administration major at Baylor and carries a 3.42 cumulative grade point average. To be eligible for All-District honors, a student-athlete must carry a 3.20 GPA for higher (on a 4.0 scale) and be a starter or an important reserve with legitimate athletic credentials. Freshmen and first-year transfers are not eligible.

Blackmon is joined by four others on the District VI first team. District VI is comprised of all Division I and I-AA schools in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Joining Blackmon on the first team are Texas senior Jamie Carey, Tulsa senior Sarah Lundberg-Newby, Arkansas sophomore Kristin Peoples and Tulsa junior Kara Pongonis. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Terra Andrews and Nicole Duncan were named to the second team and were joined by Tulsa's Becky Heidotten, Arkansas' Sarah Pfeiffer and Southern Mississippi's Kimberly Rigg.

In addition to the academic award, Blackmon is a finalist for the Naismith Trophy, the Wade Trophy and the John P. Wooden Award, all national awards. She is also a a Bayer Senior Class nominee and was named to several preseason All-America teams.

Blackmon, Baylor's all-time shot blocker with 148, is averaging 16.0 points and 8.4 rebounds a game for the seventh-ranked and Big 12 Conference leading Lady Bears. In her four seasons, Baylor's record is 97-30.