By TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Ohio Valley Conference announced that 268 student-athletes have earned the OVC Academic Medal of Honor for the 2018-19 academic year.
This year, Tennessee Tech claimed 19 of the 268 awards, four more than last year's total.
The OVC Academic Medal of Honor is given annually to the student-athletes who achieves the highest grade point average in a Conference-sponsored sport. Every Academic Medal of Honor recipient for the 2018-19 academic year carried a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
Tech's winners included:
BASEBALL – Gavin Johns, Grant Phillips
FOOTBALL – Seth Huner, Josh Poplar, Adam Swayze
WOMEN'S SOCCER – Katie Bain, Ashley Grimes, Taylor Hornback, Molly Kafader*, Kari Naerdemann*, Kendall Powell, Kaitie Shipley
SOFTBALL – Kayla Hughes, Gabby LaSala, Amanda Phy, Leigh Ellen Thomas
WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD – Molly Kafader*, Kari Naerdemann*, Lisa Wickham
VOLLEYBALL – Kirsten Brugere, Ali Verzani
*Indicates winner for multiple sports
Of the 268 award winners, 27 were awarded Academic Medals of Honor for multiple sports (and counted just once in the final recipients list).
The 268 recipients are the most in a single academic year in the history of the award, smashing the previous record of 248 honorees in 2015-16. Over the past five years there have been 1,178 student-athletes earn the OVC Academic Medal of Honor.
The OVC will announce the recipients of the Commissioner's Honor Roll, the Academic Achievement Award and the Team Academic Achievement Awards later this week.
Photo by Ohio Valley Conference