Jan. 19, 2012
RUSTON - Louisiana Tech soccer led the way with 12 honorees while a total of 30 of the University's student-athletes earned Academic All-Western Athletic Conference accolades during the fall sports seasons for cross country, football, soccer and volleyball.
To be eligible for the honor, a student-athlete must have completed at least one academic year, have at least a 3.0 cumulative grade point average and have participated in at least 50 percent of the team's contests.
Louisiana Tech's recipients for the fall included Bianca Bin (Volleyball), Emily Brennan (Soccer), Lindsay Brough (Soccer), Taylor Burch (Football), Steven Cortez (Cross Country), Scotti Culton (Soccer), Joshua Cuthburt (Football), Taylor Dennis (Soccer), Chelsea Dressel (Cross Country), Paige Dunn (Soccer), Caitlin Germany (Volleyball), David Gru (Football), Mary Kate Hays (Cross Country), Rachel King (Soccer), Olivia Lukasewich (Soccer), Emily Maher (Volleyball), Gauge Means (Cross Country), Matthew Nelson (Football), Nataliya Panova (Volleyball), Amy Quintana (Soccer), Solomon Randle (Football), Morgan Rockwell (Soccer), Maleah Schorpp (Soccer), Josh Slocum (Cross Country), Chandler Spence (Football), Caitlin Updyke (Soccer), Clara Vido (Volleyball), Stephen Warner (Football), Chelsea White(Soccer), and Matthew Wolfe (Cross Country).
This is just more proof that the University's student-athletes continue to shine in the classroom. In October Louisiana Tech reached another all-time high when the NCAA released the most recent Federal Graduation Rate Report in which the University recorded its highest student-athlete Graduation Success Rate (GSR) ever.
Tech's student-athletes recorded a four-year graduation success rate of 72 percent which ranks as the second highest in the state among Division I football-playing public institutions and among the best in the nation.
LA Tech's graduation success rate - which is two percentage points better than last year's previous record-high of 70 - easily outdistances the state average of 66 percent among the other nine Division I football-playing public institutions in the state of Louisiana.
Tech also recorded the second highest federal graduation rate of any state school at 56 percent, trailing only Tulane.
This past May, the NCAA released its Academic Progress Rates (APR) and for the third consecutive year, Louisiana Tech saw impressive improvements in the majority of its scores. Louisiana Tech saw eight of its 16 NCAA sanctioned programs record their highest multi-year APR rates ever while four of the programs registered their highest single year APR score ever. Three of the programs also earned a perfect 1,000 score on the single year rate.
