For the first time in Sooner Athletic Conference history, the league has announced a conference-wide Commissioner's Honor Roll, and John Brown University boasts the fourth-most total honorees with 77, league offices announced June 12.
To be eligible for the Commissioner's Honor Roll, student-athletes must maintain a minimum 3.00 grade-point-average during the previous academic year.
"I am so proud of our student-athletes and their commitment to excellence in the classroom," said Robyn Daugherty, director of athletics. "In a world where athletic performance overshadows academic achievement, it is exciting to me to see 50 percent of our student-athletes at a 3.00 or higher, especially at an institution where academics are very challenging."
With 77 honorees, JBU boasts the fourth-highest number of student-athletes honored. Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) led all conference institutions with 90 winners while Oklahoma City landed 85. Texas Wesleyan finished third with 79 and St. Gregory's (Okla.) added 63. Wayland Baptist (Texas), Science & Arts (Okla.), and Mid-America Christian (Okla.) sent 62, 51 and 39, respectively, to the Honor Roll. Oklahoma Baptist and Southwestern Christian (Okla.) do not have spring grades finalized at this time.
Impressively, the women's soccer program turned in 15 Honor Roll winners, which paces the entire conference on a single-team basis.
Beyond the 15 honored from women's soccer, John Brown had 14 honored from men's soccer, nine from volleyball, eight from women's cross country, seven from both men's cross country and women's tennis, six from women's basketball, four each from men's basketball and men's tennis and three from men's golf.
The awards are presented by Cypress Risk Management, an Omaha, Neb., based insurance agency that specializes in providing customized solutions for collegiate student health and athletic accident insurance. The organization currently insures over 500,000 students nationwide and is already engaged with several other NAIA conferences in similar type of partnerships. Cypress Risk Management's partnership with the SAC gives it exclusive sponsorship to the newly-founded awards program that covers the 13 men's and women's NAIA-sanctioned sports the conference offers.
Men's basketball
• Jared Johnson
• Kileab Ammons
• Samson Olayemi
• Nate Anderson
Men's golf
• Robert Raborn
• Trevor Barton
• Max Gordon
Men's soccer
• Cory Cole
• Chan Young Shin
• Eli Simonsen
• Zeke Zumbro
• Galen Bahadoorsingh
• Jose Nino
• Martin Gonzalez
• Ryan Duncan
• Collin Smith
• Adam Holt
• Logan Hellinghausen
• Connor Georgopulos
• Dakota Dresbach
• Darwin Silva
Men's tennis
• Phillip Todd
• Colton Cheek
• Benetton Lee
• Darwin Silva
Men's cross country
• Justin Riffel
• Kenny Crane
• Aaron Stafford
• Thomas Bearden
• Kent McDonell
• Levi Nordmeyer
• Marcos Gutierrez
Women's volleyball
• Alyssa Arnold
• Becca Young
• Vanessa Uhrhahn
• Beth Brankle
• Libby Blasingame
• Audrey Dearien
• Melissa Bakke
• Bailei Brown
• Molli Pugh
Women's basketball
• Lauren Rogers
• Morgan Ankrom
• Laura Brown
• Brooke Barker
• Melody Williams
• Courtney Fine
Women's soccer
• Sara Frey
• Sara Lachance
• Julie Whitlow
• Haylee Massey
• Sarah Hill
• Adrienne Kennedy
• Madi Susmilch
• Kristen Morency
• Hannah Poor
• Casey O'Brien
• Chloe Fennell
• Nicole Kosin
• Lauren Tonkovich
• Sam Weber
• Alex Fahr
Women's tennis
• Clare Holden
• Taylor Russell
• Krizana Saucedo
• Kellie Mowrer
• Eva Berry
• Jessie Alexander
• Grace Cusick
Women's cross country
• Kari Miller
• Erin Haley
• Annie Brown
• Kelsey Rea
• Jennifer Poole
• Elizabeth St. Louis
• Abigail Danley
• Kaitlyn Collier
Sports on 06/24/2015