SoCon Announces Winter Academic All-Conference

158 Student-Athletes Earn Recognition for Academic Achievements

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Southern Conference announced today its Academic All-Conference team for the 2011-12 winter season with 158 student-athletes earning recognition.

Among the 158 student-athletes were at least six representatives from each of the 12 SoCon institutions, participating in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's indoor track and field, and wrestling. The group recorded a combined 3.62 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.

Six student-athletes have maintained perfect 4.0 cumulative GPAs, including Furman's Catherine Burton, UNCG's Ashley Schnell, Chattanooga's Chris Berry, Western Carolina's Alex Abraham and Morgan Turner, and Wofford's Katie Kessler.

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

The league's women's track and field programs provided the most academic all-conference members with 71, followed by men's indoor track and field with 43 and women's basketball with 25.

Among member institutions, Samford paced all league schools with 20 members on the academic all-conference team, edging out Elon which had 18. Closely behind was Western Carolina with 17 student-athletes earning recognition along with 15 from UNCG.