SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference released its academic honor roll for the 2013-14 academic year on Thursday, June 19, with Elon leading the way with a league-best 230 student-athletes on the honor roll. A total of 1,915 student-athletes from the 11 member institutions earned the distinction.
The academic honor roll originated in 1988-89, when SoCon athletic directors established the award as a way to recognize the league’s outstanding student-athletes. The academic honor roll consists of student-athletes who participated in varsity sports at member institutions and posted a 3.0 grade point average or higher while passing at least 24 hours in two semesters of classes or its equivalent for other academic calendars.
Of the nearly 2,000 student-athletes on the list, 873 earned the Commissioner’s Medal, awarded annually to student-athletes who attain a GPA of 3.5 or higher throughout the year. Of those, 81 had perfect 4.0 GPAs, with Chattanooga boasting a SoCon-high 17 with perfect marks for the year.
Elon had 95 student-athletes earn the Commissioner’s Medal with eight of those holding a perfect 4.0 GPA. Those 4.0’s belong to women’s cross country/track and field’s Kaitlin Stober, men’s golf’s Jonathan DiIanni, women’s golf’s Sunna Vidisdottir, men’s soccer’s Thorsten Pacher, softball’s Emily Roper, women’s tennis’ Frida Jansaker and women’s soccer’s Sydney Branson and Kim Gardner.
Football boasted the most student-athletes on the list with 290, followed by women’s track and field and cross country with 225 and women’s soccer with 219. The honor roll includes all 19 SoCon-sponsored sports as well as the non-sponsored sports of field hockey, lacrosse, swimming and diving and rifle. League schools who sponsor swimming are members of the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association.