SoCon Announces Fall Academic All-Conference

301 Student-Athletes Earn Recognition for Academic Achievements

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Southern Conference announced today its Academic All-Conference team for the 2011 fall season with 301 student-athletes earning recognition.

Among the 301 student-athletes were at least 17 representatives from each of the 12 SoCon institutions, participating in men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's soccer, and volleyball. The group recorded a combined 3.64 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.

Sixteen student-athletes have maintained perfect 4.0 cumulative GPAs, including The Citadel's Shanna Couch and John Synovec, Elon's Katelyn O'Dunne, Georgia Southern's Monica Belissimo and Adrian Mora, UNCG's Peyton Ford and Ashley Schnell, Chattanooga's Chris Berry, Morgan Buchanan, Tara Gietema, Taylor Mangrum, Christina Teter and Sarah White-Woerner, Western Carolina's Morgan Turner, and Wofford's Katie Kessler and Rachel Woodlee.

To be eligible, student-athletes must carry at least a 3.3 cumulative grade point average entering the fall season and were required to compete in at least one-half of their team's competitions during the recently-concluded fall campaign. In addition, the student-athletes must have successfully completed at least 24 credit hours in the previous two semesters.

The league's 12 women's soccer programs provided the most academic all-conference members with 76, followed by women's cross country with 54 and football with 53.

Among member institutions, Appalachian State paced all league schools with 35 members on the academic all-conference team, edging out Elon which had 34. Closely behind was Wofford with 33 student-athletes earning recognition along with 25 from Chattanooga.