Michelle Roca Named MW Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Air Force track and field standout Michelle Roca, a 2022 Academy graduate and current second lieutenant in the U.S. Space Force, was named the 2021-22 Mountain West Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year this afternoon (July 13), as the conference announced its highest annual honor.

Roca is the second member of the women's track and field team to claim the conference's top academic accolade – and 10th Air Force athlete overall.

A native of Spanish Fort, Ala., Roca was a Distinguished Graduate from the Academy this past May, ranking 16th out of 1017 cadets in the Class of 2022. The Academy's top-ranked senior in terms of Physical Education Average, Roca was a graduate of the USAFA Scholars Program and a two-time member of the Dean's Ace Team for achieving a semester GPA of 4.00 (2020, 2022). A four-time MW Scholar-Athlete and academic all-conference selection, Roca was named to an All-Academic Athlete by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association as a junior.

Roca excelled on the track for the Falcons, earning MVP honors for the program this past year after becoming Air Force's first female hurdler to compete at the NCAA Division I Championships in 2021. She capped her stellar collegiate career this spring by breaking her own Academy Record in the 400-meter hurdles and becoming the first sub-60 hurdler in program history during a 59.81 performance at the MW Outdoor Championships. Roca, who bettered the Senior Class Record in her signature event four times this season, also led off the 4x400-meter relay that registered the program's fastest outdoor time in 38 years (3:42.14, second overall) at the conference meet and raced on the sprint medley relay that crushed the program standard at the Drake Relays (3:56.82). During the indoor season, she clocked the third-fastest 400-meter (55.17) and fifth-fastest 200-meter (25.13) times in Air Force history, anchored the 4x400-meter relay that posted the second-fastest indoor time in Academy history (3:44.52), and ran the sprint leg of the distance medley relay that accounted for the sixth-fastest mark in program history (11:48.86a) during an all-conference performance at the Mountain West Indoor Championships.

After attending Harvard Kennedy School of Government this fall to obtain a master's degree in public policy, Roca will become an intelligence office in the Space Force.

Air Force's MW Scholar-Athlete of the Year Honorees
Michelle Roca, women's track and field (2021-22)
Kyle Johnson, football (2019-20)
Jinan Andrews, women's swimming and diving (2017-18)
Rebecca Esselstein, women's track and field (2014-15)
Eric Robinson, men's swimming and diving (2010-11)
Abigail Rogers, women's gymnastics (2008-09)
Blair Leake, women's swimming and diving (2006-07)
Matt Karmondy, men's swimming and diving (2005-06)
Delavane Diaz, volleyball (2003-04)
John Dayton, men's swimming and diving (2002-03)

Michelle Roca Named MW Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Players Mentioned

Michelle Roca

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