Josh Sheehy wins Southland's Student-Athlete of the Year Award
5/16/2019 2:05:00 PM | Men's Tennis
ABILENE – The postseason awards keep arriving for senior Josh Sheehy as Thursday he and classmates Cole Lawson and Sebastian Langdon were honored with spots on a Southland Conference All-Academic team.
All yearly awards are presented by Ready Nutrition.
Sheehy, who received top billing as the league's Student-Athlete of the Year, was joined on the first team by Lawson, a nursing major from Spring, Texas, while Langdon, an accounting and financial management major from Grapevine, Texas, was tabbed to the second team.
Sheehy shares the same major as Langdon, and is the fourth Wildcat this academic year to receive the conference's top academic award, joining quarterback Luke Anthony (football), forward Jaren Lewis (men's basketball) and thrower Kai Schmidt (indoor track and field).
Backed by an exceptional GPA, 20 victories as a No. 1 singles player, a national ranking, and title of Southland Conference Player of the Year, Sheehy's selection as Student-Athlete of the Year was perhaps never in doubt. He also garnered first team academic honors in 2017.
In his final season as a collegiate athlete, the Arlington, Texas, native accomplished everything except getting his team to the NCAA Championships. Instead his consolation prize will be going as a solo entrant into the NCAA singles championship, becoming the first Southland Conference competitor to be awarded this honor since Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Peter Nagy in 2015. Nagy also participated in the 2013 singles championship.
The 2018 Paul Goad Award winner as Abilene Christian's Most Valuable Athlete, Sheehy's fall season was highlighted by reaching the ITA Texas quarterfinals for the second straight time, and reaching the Round of 16 at the Midland Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational. In between he scored a victory over Florida's Greysen Cacciatore at the ITA Mens All-American Championships.
Sheehy then started his spring campaign with a three-set super tiebreaker loss to No. 32 Spencer Papa of Oklahoma, but won four of his next six matches against competition from Azusa Pacific, Pepperdine, Omaha and Oral Roberts. His two defeats during that stretch were against No. 31 Juan Carlos Aguilar of Texas A&M (6-2, 3-6, 6-4) and No. 64 Majed Kilani of Tulsa (6-3, 6-3).
A 13-time Southland Conference Player of the Week in his career, Sheehy recorded his first sustained winning streak between Feb. 2 and March 13 with his seven-match run snapped by #30 Lucas Poullain of Florida State. However, he has not lost since and only three times has he been pushed to a third set.
Lawson, who received Second Team All-Southland Conference Academic honors in 2018, attained First Team All-Conference doubles honors at No. 1 earlier this spring with Jackson Fine.
Fine and Lawson played much of the season together and led their squad with 10 wins, three of which came at the top line vs. the Southland Conference. They started with a 6-4 victory over Nicholls, followed with a 7-6 (5) win over UNO, and topped UIW, 6-4. In between they had two unfinished matches vs. Lamar and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi that ended in 6-6 ties.
Langdon, a first-time Southland Conference All-Academic honoree, won six singles matches and three doubles contests during a season in which he missed several matches due to injury. His wins were against opposition from Azusa Pacific, Pepperdine, Trinity, Pueblo, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Harding.
The All-Academic teams are voted on by the head coach, sports information director and an academic/compliance staff member from each Southland Conference institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team's competition to qualify for All-Academic selection. Nominees who were named to the All-Conference First Team are automatically named Southland All-Academic.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member schools, votes for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.
All yearly awards are presented by Ready Nutrition.
Sheehy, who received top billing as the league's Student-Athlete of the Year, was joined on the first team by Lawson, a nursing major from Spring, Texas, while Langdon, an accounting and financial management major from Grapevine, Texas, was tabbed to the second team.
Sheehy shares the same major as Langdon, and is the fourth Wildcat this academic year to receive the conference's top academic award, joining quarterback Luke Anthony (football), forward Jaren Lewis (men's basketball) and thrower Kai Schmidt (indoor track and field).
Backed by an exceptional GPA, 20 victories as a No. 1 singles player, a national ranking, and title of Southland Conference Player of the Year, Sheehy's selection as Student-Athlete of the Year was perhaps never in doubt. He also garnered first team academic honors in 2017.
In his final season as a collegiate athlete, the Arlington, Texas, native accomplished everything except getting his team to the NCAA Championships. Instead his consolation prize will be going as a solo entrant into the NCAA singles championship, becoming the first Southland Conference competitor to be awarded this honor since Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Peter Nagy in 2015. Nagy also participated in the 2013 singles championship.
The 2018 Paul Goad Award winner as Abilene Christian's Most Valuable Athlete, Sheehy's fall season was highlighted by reaching the ITA Texas quarterfinals for the second straight time, and reaching the Round of 16 at the Midland Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational. In between he scored a victory over Florida's Greysen Cacciatore at the ITA Mens All-American Championships.
Sheehy then started his spring campaign with a three-set super tiebreaker loss to No. 32 Spencer Papa of Oklahoma, but won four of his next six matches against competition from Azusa Pacific, Pepperdine, Omaha and Oral Roberts. His two defeats during that stretch were against No. 31 Juan Carlos Aguilar of Texas A&M (6-2, 3-6, 6-4) and No. 64 Majed Kilani of Tulsa (6-3, 6-3).
A 13-time Southland Conference Player of the Week in his career, Sheehy recorded his first sustained winning streak between Feb. 2 and March 13 with his seven-match run snapped by #30 Lucas Poullain of Florida State. However, he has not lost since and only three times has he been pushed to a third set.
Lawson, who received Second Team All-Southland Conference Academic honors in 2018, attained First Team All-Conference doubles honors at No. 1 earlier this spring with Jackson Fine.
Fine and Lawson played much of the season together and led their squad with 10 wins, three of which came at the top line vs. the Southland Conference. They started with a 6-4 victory over Nicholls, followed with a 7-6 (5) win over UNO, and topped UIW, 6-4. In between they had two unfinished matches vs. Lamar and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi that ended in 6-6 ties.
Langdon, a first-time Southland Conference All-Academic honoree, won six singles matches and three doubles contests during a season in which he missed several matches due to injury. His wins were against opposition from Azusa Pacific, Pepperdine, Trinity, Pueblo, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Harding.
The All-Academic teams are voted on by the head coach, sports information director and an academic/compliance staff member from each Southland Conference institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team's competition to qualify for All-Academic selection. Nominees who were named to the All-Conference First Team are automatically named Southland All-Academic.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member schools, votes for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.
Players Mentioned
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