Former Trojan national champion Mejias wins national academic award

NORMAN, Okla. - Former NIACC two-time national champion Yoanse Mejias, who just completed his wrestling career at Oklahoma University, earned a national academic award on Thursday as he was named to the National Scholar Baller Academic Momentum Award First Team. 

Mejias, of Miami, Fla., was named alongside seven NCAA Division I student-athletes to the first team. The other first team members were Shae Chapman (Georgia State, Volleyball), Mandy Coleman (Oklahoma State, Women's Basketball), Kali Hazera (Florida Atlantic, Track and Field), Patrick Park (Arizona State, Men's Swimming), James Washington (Oklahoma State, Football), Jaleel Wheeler (Tulsa, Men's Basketball) and Will Williams (Texas A&M, Track and Field).

The Scholar Baller Academic Momentum Award is given to student-athletes who show significant improvement in the classroom and who positively impacted fellow students, their professors and their teammates in the process.

Mejias, a planned program major, earned a 3.50 GPA in the fall 2017 semester. Mejias, who went 28-9 overall and 14-3 in duals in the 2017-18 campaign, spent the majority of his upbringing in Havana, Cuba.

After moving to Miami for high school, Mejias spent two years at NIACC where he won two NJCAA national championships at 157 pounds in 2014 and 2015.

He transferred to Oklahoma in 2016, where he excelled on the mat throughout his career in Norman with a career 39-17 record, including a trip to the NCAA Championships in 2018 following a fourth-place finish at the Big 12 Championship. Mejias constantly found himself in the top-15 rankings at 174 pounds, including an extended period inside the national top-10. 

Mejias was the only wrestler in the nation among the 26 student-athletes named to the Scholar Baller First, Second or Third Team. 

"After graduating I want to apply for the fire department either here in Norman or in Oklahoma City, or wherever the opportunity opens up at," Mejias said. "I'm really focusing on helping people, lifting people up and doing anything I can in the community to help people out."

- By Oklahoma sports information