MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama held its annual spring graduation ceremony Saturday at the Mitchell Center, highlighted by a group of 60 current and former student-athletes earning degrees from the school.
Included in that group are Rush Hendricks — the first member of the Jaguar football program to receive a doctoral degree — and Jan-Low Kotze, who capped his four-year outdoor track and field career last spring by collecting the NCAA Elite 90 Award to go along with earning both All-America and Academic All-America recognition. Women's track and field team members Kaitlyn Beans and Joanna McCoy graduated after picking up All-American and Academic All-American distinction, respectively, during their careers, as 18 individuals from nine sport programs received degrees after being named all-Sun Belt Conference during their careers.
In all 14 track and field student-athletes — eight women, six men — were recognized including Andrew Allen, Ivy Chastain, Katy Cihlar, Nicole Durham, Cameron Ellis, LaMia Miller, Nate Riech, Barbara Rivera, Buddy Soto, Marina Swanepoel and Berron Tyson. They contributed to South winning the women's and finishing runner-up in the men's competition at the 2016 SBC Outdoor Championship as well as the women's first league cross country title since 1993.
In addition to Hendricks, who completed his eligibility in the fall of 2014, the football team had 14 individuals earn degrees after the Jaguars were invited to participate in the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl in December. The group featured all-conference honorees Randy Allen and Kevin Kutchera as well as Dewayne Alford, Tre Alford, Clay Burt, Jacob Chaffin, Quinton Dent, Cole Garvin, Quinton Lane, Easton Marshall, Steve McKenzie, Curtis Williams, Tyrone Williams and De'Arius Young.
The USA baseball program — which finished 42-22 last spring, winning a share of the Sun Belt regular-season championship while advancing to an NCAA Regional — saw eight squad members graduate including Randy Bell, Matt Bolger, Cam Cummings, Avery Geyer, Eddie Paparella, Matt Peacock, Harrison Spruiell and Adam Wolfe. The trio of Laura Matuskova, Monica Mitta and Laura Valkova helped the Jag women's tennis team to three consecutive 20-win seasons, and along with Cinta Maria Papke and Paula Sanchez helped South claim the conference tournament title and a berth in an NCAA Regional in 2015.
Shaq Calhoun, Don MuepoKelly, Nick Stover and Ken Williams were graduates from the men's basketball program, and were joined by women's basketball student-athlete LaNeetra Guillory. The men's tennis and women's soccer teams each had three members earn degrees, with Gerhard Gruindelingh, Pierre Noyon and Tim Srkala from the former and Monique Autmon, Emily Farrell and Nikki Shirtcliffe representing the latter after helping the Jaguars to four Sun Belt Tournament championships and NCAA Tournament appearances as well as three league regular-season titles during their careers.
Three South squads had two individuals who were honored with Elisa Axelsen and Carianne Wright representing women's golf, Amanda Minihan and Destin Vicknair from softball and volleyball student-athletes Abby Baker and Sarah Richardson, with men's golfer Drew Cooke also graduating.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
Join the Jaguar Athletic Fund (JAF) Priority Fund, the unrestricted giving option of the University of South Alabama Athletics. Contributions to the Priority Fund directly support all 17 sports in addition to various support programming. For more information on how you can join visit: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/priorityfund
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