Six Teams, Thirteen Student-Athletes Earn Academic Awards
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has announced that 898 programs have been named 2012-13 NAIA Scholar-Teams, and six Golden Eagle programs find themselves among the honored. Additionally, 13 John Brown student-athletes were named Scholar-Athletes by the NAIA this past year.
"I am constantly amazed by the work our programs put into the classroom each and every year," said Director of Athletics, Robyn Daugherty. "Again, having more than half of our programs that were eligible receive the scholar-team award is a testament to each players' efforts on and off the playing fields, in addition to the impact our coaching staff has on their players' study habits.
"For the individuals that achieved scholar-athlete nominations, I am very proud. They have shown their dedication to the larger vision of athletics at John Brown University, which is achieving excellence in academic work while also meeting the demands of participating in intercollegiate athletics."
In the 2012-13 campaign, the volleyball program, under head coach Stacie Johnson, paced all Golden Eagle teams with a 3.42 GPA, led by scholar-athletes Erin Didier and Aubrey Adams. The women's cross country program landed a close second place, earning a 3.40 GPA under head coach Matt Pearson, which featured Melissa Roth as the team's lone scholar-athlete recipient.
Both soccer programs earned scholar-team accolades as the men's squad completed 2012-13 with a 3.09 GPA under former head coach John Miglarese, while the women's team grabbed a 3.24 mark under the guidance of head coach Scott Marksberry, who has recently taken the helm of the men's program. Leading the men's soccer team were a pair of scholar-athlete senior defenders, Chris Soenksen and David Castagne.
Powered by a trio of scholar-athletes (Tiffany Prieb, Michelle Caneday and Leah Engstrom), the women's tennis squad captured a team GPA of 3.38 under first-year head coach Paul Pautsch. Rounding out the top six academic programs earning scholar-team accolades was men's cross country, finishing with a 3.13 GPA, led by scholar-athletes Steven Borengasser and Caleb Fuller.
Three other individuals garnering scholar-athlete honors were senior guards Abel Galliguez and Coleson Rakestraw of the men's basketball squad, in addition to Deliverance Campbell of the men's tennis team. Both Galliguez and Rakestraw also earned a spot on the Capital One Academic All-District® team before Rakestraw was honored with his second-consecutive nomination to the Capital One Academic All-America® First Team, still the sole Golden Eagle to accomplish a first-team feat.
For a team to be considered for the NAIA Scholar-Team award, it must have a minimum 3.0 grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale), as defined by the institution, while in order to be considered for the NAIA Scholar-Athlete award, the student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and must have achieved a junior academic status.
