By TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Ohio Valley Conference announced that a record 285 student-athletes have earned the OVC Academic Medal of Honor for the 2019-20 academic year. This year, Tennessee Tech student-athletes claimed 16 of the 285 awards.
The OVC Academic Medal of Honor is given annually to the student-athletes who achieve the highest grade point average in a Conference-sponsored sport. Every Academic Medal of Honor recipient for the 2019-20 academic year carried a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
Tech's winners included:
BASEBALL – Paul Steffensen
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL – Abby Buckner
MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY – Hannes Vohn
WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY – Courtney McCowan*
FOOTBALL – Seth Huner, Jamaal Thompson
MEN'S GOLF – Bryce Beeler
WOMEN'S GOLF – Gittle Sciolis
WOMEN'S SOCCER – Taylor Hornback, Kendall Powell, Kaitie Shipley, Chloe Smith
SOFTBALL – Amanda Phy
WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD – Anya Akili, Courtney McCowan*, Lisa Wickham
VOLLEYBALL – Ali Verzani
*Indicates winner for multiple sports
Of the 286 award winners, 49 were awarded Academic Medals of Honor for multiple sports (and counted just once in the final recipients list).
The 286 recipients are the most in a single academic year in the history of the award, smashing the previous record of 275 honorees in 2018-19. Over the past five years, there have been 1,271 student-athletes earn the OVC Academic Medal of Honor.
Due to the extraordinary circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, spring sport athletes who were eligible and met the GPA requirements, but saw their seasons canceled (therefore not using a season of competition) received the award. Additionally, student-athletes who had pass/fail courses listed on their transcript were also made eligible so long as the institutional GPAs are calculated according to institutional policy.
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
