760 Student-Athletes Earn Spots on SAC Commissioner’s Honor Roll

ROCK HILL, S.C. – The 2011-12 SAC Commissioner's Honor Roll was released on Monday, with 760 of the conference's student-athletes earning recognition for their academic achievements over the past year.

All 10 SAC member institutions and each of the league's 14 sponsored sports were represented on the 2011-12 honor roll.

To be eligible for the distinction, student-athletes must have lettered in a varsity SAC-sponsored sport and maintained a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 or higher throughout the academic year.

"I'm proud to recognize each of these outstanding student-athletes for their hard work and dedication in the classroom," said SAC Commissioner Patrick Britz.

"The achievements of such an impressive number of student-athletes are a testament to our schools' efforts to develop these young men and women academically in addition to athletically."

Lenoir-Rhyne led the SAC with 95 student-athletes on the honor roll. All 14 of the L-R teams that compete in SAC-sponsored sports had at least one student-athlete named to the honor roll, including a program-best 23 football players.

Mars Hill and Tusculum finished with the next-highest number of honor roll selections with 84 and 81, respectively. They were followed by Newberry with 75 and Catawba with 74.

Lincoln Memorial and Carson-Newman each had 71 student-athletes on the honor roll, Wingate placed 70, and Anderson and Brevard had 69.

Included in the 760 honor roll selections were seven SAC Players of the Year and five SAC Freshmen of the Year from 2011-12.

The SAC Players of the Year to earn honor roll distinction were Justin Gragg (Mars Hill men's cross country), Kate Griewisch (Lenoir-Rhyne women's cross country), Catherine Hauck (L-R women's soccer), Liz Willis (Wingate volleyball), Liam Ashby (Carson-Newman men's golf), Maria Luz Besio (Newberry women's golf) and Craig Goodman (Tusculum baseball).

They were joined by SAC Freshmen of the Year Madison Hill (Brevard women's cross country), Hanna Kiebel (L-R women's soccer), Lexi Potter (WU volleyball), Emee Herbert (TC women's golf) and Lukas Winkelmann (TC men's tennis).

The complete 2011-12 SAC Commissioner's Honor Roll can be found here.