Murray State University Athletics
Women's Golf, Women's Soccer Earn OVC Academic Achievement Award
8/1/2007 5:00:00 AM | General
The Murray State women's golf team and women's soccer team earned the highest Ohio Valley Conference academic team honor, the OVC Academic Achievement Award, given to the team in each sport with the highest percentage of student-athletes named to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll.
To be named to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll, a student-athlete must have a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.25 or better on a 4.0-scale. Student-athletes with the highest GPA in the conference in their sport earn the OVC Medal of Honor, the highest OVC academic individual honor.
The Racer soccer team had 19 of its 21 student-athletes earn OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll accolades (90.5 percent), tying the Tennessee Tech football team for the most student-athletes on the honor roll from a school in one sport.
The Lady Racer golf team boasted 10 members of its 11-player roster on the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll (90.9 percent).
Ten Murray State student-athletes earned OVC Medals of Honor, all with perfect 4.00 grade-point averages for the 2006-07 school year, including: Amber Guffey, women's basketball; Paige Guffey, women's basketball; Kristin Reffett, women's cross country and women's track and field (earning a medal in each sport); Jay Burgett, football; Kevin Witbrodt, rifle; Annie Fortier, women's soccer; Kellyn Robison, women's soccer; Sara Struve, women's soccer; Leslie Whitehead, women's soccer; and Allie Hunt, women's volleyball.
Overall, 135 student-athletes earned the OVC Medal of Honor among the 11 member schools, each earning a 4.0 GPA for the 2006-07 academic year.
Murray State student-athletes earned 114 places on the 2006-07 OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll, with six of those earning honors in two sports (cross country and track and field). Overall, 1,023 league student-athletes earned OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll recognition this year. MSU was second only to Eastern Illinois, which had 166 Honor Roll honorees. Southeast Missouri and Tennessee Tech each had 107 honorees, while Eastern Kentucky had 106.
"Of our 325 student-athletes, 33.2 percent made the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll," said Matt Kelly, associate director of athletics for internal operations. "That's one out of every three student-athletes with a GPA of 3.25 or better, and those numbers have been improving over the past few years. This is what it boils down to. We want our athletes to do well in competition, of course, but the main thing is for our students to do well in the classroom, to improve their minds here and now so they can be achievers after they graduate."
"I'm proud of our student-athletes and the fact that we finished second," said director of athletics Allen Ward. "That speaks highly of Matt Kelly, the academic affairs staff and the commitment our coaches make to both athletic and academic success. I'm especially proud of the women's golf and women's soccer teams and the exceptional leadership provided by those teams' coaches, Velvet Milkman and Beth Acreman.
"Our goal is to win championships, but I'm of the belief that you don't have to sacrifice academic achievement to win. We will continue to develop a program that allows our student-athletes the opportunity to place a championship ring on one hand and a degree in the other."
Murray State student-atheltes named to the 2006-07 OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll were (* - OVC Medal of Honor winners):
BASEBALL: James Akin, Andrew Cella, Wes Cunningham, Marc Harmon, Matt McGaha, Daniel Miller, Jason Payton, Matt Scheer, Anthony Stacy.
MEN'S BASKETBALL: Georges Fotso, Ty Holloway, Jarad Key.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Amber Guffey*, Paige Guffey*, Jenny Petrie, Jasmyne Thornton.
MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY: Reis Drive, Andrew Smithson.
WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY: Lindsey Neeley, Kristin Reffett*, Amber Thomas, Alaina Zanin.
FOOTBALL: Jay Burgett*, Tamar Butler, Steven Ehrhardt, James Jackson, Jocelyn Jones, Zach Knight, Nathan Moore, Cody Morehead, Nathan Williams, Timothy Wright.
MEN'S GOLF: Mark Brant, Michael Craft, Robert Griffin, Joseph Landrum, Kyle Landrum, Gerald Price, James Stevenson, Garrett Veal, Jared Wolfe.
WOMEN'S GOLF: Christi Baron, Andrea Downer, Lauren Hughes, Kaysin Hutching, Caroline Lagerborg, jena Lancaster, Megan McKinney, Sarah Seay, Jessica Wilson, Bethany Yates.
RIFLE: Kevin Witbrodt*.
WOMEN'S ROWING: Tracy Bogard, Kelly Boyer, Anna Brown, Karen Delaney, Laura Graham, Hannah Shaffer, Jessica Stamper, Mia Walters.
WOMEN'S SOCCER: Lauren Blessinger, Kara Carlile, Rebekah Clay, Melisa Curry, Jane Dewitt, Tara Eby, Lauren Falls, Annie Fortier*, Lauren Granger, Lacey Latimer, Krista Llewellyn, Katrina Meyer, Jen Nowak, Laura Oppegard, Jen Peios, Kellyn Robison*, Sara Struve*, Leslie Whitehead*, Molly Wolfe.
MEN'S TENNIS: Clayton Clark, Hunter Gerlach, Mikel Headford, Christopher Horton, Dmytro Hryhorash, Nicholas Ksiezopolski, Yuri Pompeu, James Waller, Fadi Zamjaoui.
WOMEN'S TENNIS: Adrianna Alvarez, Anna Lask, Rachael Lask, Angela McGahee, Anne Pennington, Casady Pruitt.
WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD: Shameka Dial, Rachel Haley, Felicia Hargis, Lindsey Neeley, Kristin Reffett*, Meagan Richeson, Josha Rogers, Laura Schroeder, Holly Stanek, Kassandra Sutzer, Amber Thomas, Alaina Zanin.
WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL: Allie Hunt*, Holly Jansen, Katie Kemezys, Julie Lashley, Leah Rippy, Jessica Rydz.
