FOND DU LAC - Senior Ashley Welk of Marian University women's soccer and junior Drew Cowden of Marian University men's soccer have been named Academic All-District by the College Sports Communicators (CSC) organization, formerly CoSIDA.

The CSC Academic All-American program recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their efforts both in competition and in the classroom.  To be eligible, a student-athlete must compete in half of their team's games, be a key starter or reserve on their team, and attain a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.5.  Welk and Cowden both now advance to the CSC Academic All-America ballot with those honorees being announced in December.

Welk (Mount Prospect, Ill.) had another impressive season earning a second-team selection.  The midfielder led the Sabre offense scoring nine goals with five assists for 23 total points.  She earned one NACC Offensive Player of the Week award after posting a hat trick against Wisconsin Lutheran and scoring a goal against Rockford.  She also had a strong performance in a must-win game against Aurora where she scored a goal and had a pair of assists to lead Marian to a 3-2 victory at home.  Welk closes out her career sixth on the Marian all-time scoring list with 39 goals and 15 assists for 93 total points in just 60 games of action.  Welk has a 3.93 grade-point average with majors of forensic science and biology.

Cowden (Covington, Wash.) is named all-conference for the third time in his career and is named to the first team for the first time.  Cowden finished the season with eight goals with seven assists for 23 total points.  He posted five points in a pair of games scoring twice with an assist against Aurora and at Dominican.  Cowden also had a four-point game against Lakeland where he scored once and had a pair of assists.  The Sabres were unbeaten this season when Cowden was able to find the back of the net.  For his career, Cowden is tied for 14th on the Marian all-time scoring list and his 24 career assists is third all-time.  Cowden is currently pursuing a degree in business administration and acounting and has a 3.66 grade-point average.

The full release from the CSC can be found at https://academicallamerica.com/news/2022/11/15/academic-all-america-announcing-2022-csc-academic-all-district-m-w-soccer-teams.aspx.