NEW ORLEANS, La. – Webster University's women's track and field team was honored on Thursday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) with a 2017-18 All-Academic Team Award. 
 
Along with earning an All-Academic Team Award from the USTFCCCA, Webster senior women's track and field athlete Meghan Illig (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh) earned NCAA Division III All-Academic Honors for the 2017-18 indoor and outdoor track and field campaigns.

Webster has now earned a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team Award for the fourth time in the last five years, including earning three straight awards from 2013-16. 
 
The women's team, which is coached by both Dan Graber and Nick Neihaus, had a cumulative grade point average of 3.23 among the 27 women that competed during the 2018 indoor and outdoor seasons. 
 
A total of 185 NCAA III women's track & field teams nationally qualified for the All-Academic Team Award by earning a cumulative team GPA of 3.10 or higher for the 2017-18 academic year. Webster was one of four St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Association teams that qualified, along with Fontbonne University, Greenville University, and Principia College earning the award as well.
 
Meanwhile, Illig earns USTFCCCA All-Academic honors in Division III after finishing the season ranked in 28th nationally in the 400-meter hurdles.

In order for a student-athlete to qualify for a spot on the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team, a student-athlete must have a cumulative GPA of at least a 3.30 and have competed in the NCAA Indoor or Outdoor National Championships of finished the season ranked in the national Top 50 in an individual event or in the Top 35 in a relay event. 
 
On the season, Illig, who was named a CoSIDA/Google Cloud Academic All-District selection, an SLIAC Spring All-Academic Team honoree and is also a nominee for the 2017-18 NCAA Woman of the Year Award, was named the SLIAC Women's Track Athlete of the Year after taking home SLIAC titles in the 100-meter hurdles, 400-meter hurdles and 4-x-400 meter relay and earning All-SLIAC honors in those three events, along with the 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash. She helped lead Webster to its first-ever SLIAC title in women's track and field.

The senior just missed qualifying in the 400-meter hurdles for this year's NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships as she fell just short of qualifying as her school record time of 1:02.52 at Missouri S&T's Dewey Allgood Invitational was the 28th-best time in Division III in 2018.

In addition to her success in outdoor track, Illig also set four new school records during the 2017-18 indoor track and field season as she now holds seven of the school's all-time indoor track and field records. The record she set in 2017-18 included the 300-meter dash, the 4-x-400 meter relay, the sprint medley relay and the distance medley relay. She also holds indoor records in the 400 and 500-meter dashes and the 60-meter hurdles.

Illig was also a member of Webster's 2017 SLIAC Championship women's cross country team. In cross country, Illig was a three-time First-Team All-SLIAC selection and earned two SLIAC Runner of the Week accolades during the 2017 season.
 
The women's track & field team becomes the fourth Webster team to be recognized by national organizations this summer with academic honors as they join men's basketball, golf and volleyball, who all earned Academic Team honors from their respective coaches' associations.