Wingate's Mense Earns SAC Women's Outdoor Track & Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year Honors

ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – Wingate's Tatijana Mense was voted the 2024 South Atlantic Conference Women's Outdoor Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the Conference office announced today.

The South Atlantic Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year award is presented annually to one student-athlete in each of the Conference's championship sports and is voted on by the SAC's Faculty Athletic Representatives Committee. The winners are selected based on their achievements in academics, athletics, service, and leadership.

Mense, a graduate student from Berlin, Germany, holds a 4.00 grade point average as she earns a master's to go with her 3.952 GPA in undergrad. She has been named to the Wingate University President's List eight times and has been a member of the Wingate Honors Program all four years. She is a four-time recipient of the SAC Commissioner's Honor Roll and twice named USTFCCCA Women's Cross Country All-Academic. She was named SAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in women's cross country in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Athletically, Mense ran in the SAC outdoor finals in the 5,000 meters and the 10,000 meters. She posted a PR in the outdoor 10,000 meters at the Flames Invitational (36:16.59) and in the SAC Indoor Finals in the 3,000 meters (10:19.39) and 5,000 meters (17:38.96). In Cross Country, she was an All-SAC performer as Wingate won the SAC Championship for the second straight year. She had NCAA Track and Field provisional times in three events as a junior and senior.

Off the course, she volunteered for the annual One Day, One Dog Day of Service and the United Way Day of Caring. She was a Level 2 certified tutor for Business, Math and Marketing for three years and a supplemental instructor in the Spring of 2021. She spent four years volunteering at a nursing home to provide assistance to senior citizens in her hometown over summer and winter breaks. She was also team captain of the Cross Country team as a senior.     

SAC Women's Outdoor Track and Field Scholar-Athlete Finalists

Tatjana Mense, Wingate

Elizabeth Kessler, Lenoir-Rhyne

Inmaculada Delgado, Tusculum

Katie Smock, Carson-Newman