INDIANAPOLIS – The Great Midwest Athletic Conference had two standouts earn Division II Collegiate Commissioners Association Softball All-American honors announced earlier this week.
Cedarville’s Brianne O’Dell and Kentucky Wesleyan’s Meredith Daunhauer were the league’s third and fourth All-Americans from the organization after Katie Chryssofos (Salem International – First Team) and Haley Fagan (Trevecca Nazarene – Honorable Mention) each earned nods in 2016.
This is the 11th season of the All-America program which is selected by CoSIDA members from schools playing in NCAA Division II and second in which the program was solely sponsored by the Division II Collegiate Commissioners Association.
O’Dell, also an NFCA First Team All-American pick, is the Great Midwest all-time career hits leader with 213, total bases with 298 and doubles with 51. She would have easily been the career RBI leader (129) with a year to go.
O’Dell helped lead the Yellow Jackets to a 33-20 record and a 21-4 regular-season championship run in the league schedule. She was picked as the G-MAC Player of the Year after putting up strong numbers at the plate and earned NFCA National Player of the Week this past spring.
O’Dell batted .430 in 53 games with 21 doubles, 77 hits, 40 runs scored and six home runs. She also had three triples and led the league with 57 RBI and 122 total bases.
Daunhauer shattered the Great Midwest single-season hits record with 102 in her sophomore season. She led the league with a .457 batting average in 60 games while Kentucky Wesleyan paced the conference as a team in that category (.328).
Daunhauer also scored 57 runs and stole 46 bases, both ranking second in single-season conference history. In just two seasons, her batting average climbed all the way up to .440, a pace that would put as the all-time career leader in league history.
With two years left to play, Daunhauer already ranks sixth in hits (169) and third in stolen bases (78). She is also tied for seventh in runs scored (89).
The Panthers were the Great Midwest tournament champs and qualified for the NCAA Championship Midwest Regional in St. Louis, Mo.