SHAWNEE – Senior Kayleigh Jones became the first Bison in school history to earn All-America honors as the D2CCA and NFCA announced their Division II All-America teams on Wednesday.
Jones landed a spot on the first team, becoming just the second pitcher in Great American Conference history to garner the nod. On the NFCA's rollout, she was the only athlete to collect a first-team recognition from the central region and one of two players from the GAC. In the D2CCA's announcement, only one other central region player claimed a slot on the first-team squad.
The Claremore, Okla., native adds her latest accolade to a handful of postseason honors. Last Tuesday, Jones was named the D2CCA's Central Region Pitcher of the Year to go along with a first-team selection, both firsts in OBU's NCAA era.
Before then, Jones was voted to the NFCA's All-Region First Team, named the conference Pitcher of the Year, and notched a unanimous nod to the All-GAC First Team. No other twirler in program history has stacked up this many accolades after a season.
In 232.0 innings of work in circle, Jones racked up 31 wins, 315 strikeouts and a 0.78 era. She charted two no-hitters for a second-straight year, 13 shutouts, and had 16 games with 10-plus punchouts.
Jones' work tore up the Oklahoma Baptist record book. She became the program's leader in career strikeouts (766), career wins (65), single-season wins (31), and career solo no-hitters (4). Additionally, she broke her school record for single-season strikeouts.
She was named the GAC's Pitcher of the Week eight times and DII Wilson/NFCA Pitcher of the Week once. Furthermore, she became the first twirler in conference history to compile 300 strikeouts and 30 wins in a season.
