Wildcats again surpass century mark on Southland’s Honor Roll

6/20/2017 2:45:00 PM | Baseball, Men's Basketball, Men's Golf, Men's Tennis, Softball, Women's Basketball, Women's Tennis, Track & Field

ABILENE – Following an academic year in which Abilene Christian's student-athletes posted their highest cumulative grade-point average during the school's NCAA DI transitional phase, 121 Wildcats Tuesday were named to the Southland Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll.

This list acknowledges participants in all sports sponsored by the league and its member institutions, and recognizes those student-athletes who maintained a minimum 3.00 GPA. Student-athletes must have been eligible to compete in a conference sport during the academic year in which the nomination occurs.

ACU's student-athletes posted a 3.11 CGPA for 2016-17 – a 19-point improvement from the previous year. Prior to this year, the Wildcats' highest CGPA during the transition era was a 3.09 earned during the 2013-14 season.

This semester's honor roll boasted 270 perfect 4.00 GPAs – 30 of which were claimed by the Wildcats – across the sports of baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, men's and women's tennis and men's and women's track and field. Among those who earned a flawless term GPA during their season of competition were CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree Brianna Barnhill (softball), Indoor Track and Field Student-Athlete of the Year Michaela Hackett, and Southland All-Academic awardees Taylor Brown (softball), Brielle Collett (track and field), Carnley Graham (track and field), Peyton Hedrick (softball), Hannah Null (softball), and Sydney Shelstead (women's basketball).

Seventy-one percent of ACU's 171 spring and winter season student-athletes made this list with tennis placing its entire 10-man roster on the honor roll behind a team GPA of 3.63. Golf, which had 85 percent of its 13-man roster on the honor roll followed with a 3.33 GPA. Baseball also posted a 3.00 GPA and track and field displayed improvement in the classroom with a 3.12 GPA.

All four of ACU's springtime women's teams registered CGPA's well above a 3.30 led by track and field's 3.48 as 87 percent of its roster (26-of-30) was named to the honor roll. Women's tennis recorded a 3.44 team GPA followed by softball at 3.39 and women's basketball at 3.37.

When comparing last year to this year, there was a 25-point improvement within the CGPA for the seven men's sports, as it moved from 2.66 to 2.91, while the women improved for the third consecutive year, going from 3.34 in 2014-15 to 3.39 last year and to 3.52 this year.

With that said, its no surprise that ACU has seen its total number of honor roll totals substantially rise over the past four years. There were 77 Wildcats named to this list following their return to the Southland Conference in 2014. That number jumped to 92 in 2015 and to 103 last spring.

The Southland has named a total of 2,355 student-athletes to both the Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 Commissioner's Honor Rolls with a total 471 perfect GPAs across all men's and women's sports.

ACU led the conference with 104 honor roll mentions following the fall of 2016 academic term.