Wingate's Mense Named 2022 SAC Women's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year
ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – Wingate University's Tatjana Mense was voted the 2022 South Atlantic Conference Women's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the Conference 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 senior finance major with a minor in accounting, has a 3.983 grade point average and is a member of the Wingate Honors Program. She has been named to the Wingate President's List four times and is a three-time SAC Commissioner's Honor Roll selection. This is her second SAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors, as she earned the award in 2021. She was named a Wingate Cross Country team caption for her junior and senior year.
A native of Bremen, Germany, Mense is an active member of her hometown and Wingate communities. She serves as a tutor for business, math, and marketing, while also serving as a supplemental instructor for political science at Wingate. She has participated in the Wingate United Way Day of Caring and she volunteers at a local nursing home in her hometown during summer and winter holidays.
"Tatjana Mense is an outstanding example of a student who performs at a high level and makes the other people around her better as well," said Dr. Jacob Wobig, Wingate University Associate Professor of Political Science. "She was a standout student in an honors section of a comparative politics course I taught last fall. On the basis of her performance, I asked if she would be a peer teacher for the standard version of the class last spring...I was very pleased that she agreed. She was an excellent peer mentor, helping translate complex ideas into explanations that were accessible to students facing the material for the first time. She was unfailingly supportive and helpful to the students who came to her for assistance. This particular class benefited tremendously from her tutelage. With her academic abilities, social skills and leadership potential, she is an outstanding representative of what student-athletes can bring to a university campus."
On the cross country course, Mense helped lead the Bulldogs to their second consecutive SAC Women's Cross Country Championship title, finishing 16th overall and earning Third Team All-Conference honors. She had career-best times this year in the 5K (18:12.0, UAH Showcase) and 6K (21.33.3, PSR at Lehigh). During the 2021 season, she was named to the All-SAC Cross Country team and the All-Southeast Region Cross Country team and scored points at both the SAC Indoor and Outdoor Track Championships.
"Over the last three years, Tatjana Mense has evolved from a quiet and underdeveloped athlete, to one of our top athletes (this fall)," said Wingate head cross country coach Pol Domenech. "She has been consistently one of our scorers...this is all due to her hard work and dedication over the last three years. Tatjana holds a high GPA, which exemplifies her ability to perform well in the classroom, on top of her athletic achievements. Tatjana is a strong leader for our young team and we are glad to have her with us. It is great to see her continuous development as an athlete and as a person."
Women's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete Finalists
Janet Kwambai, Lenoir-Rhyne
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