Academic honors abound for Bearkat athletes
6/28/2011 1:51:00 PM | Athletics
Cralle's honor made him the first male competitor in league history to earn the coveted "Student-Athlete of the Year" award in two sports in the same academic year. The senior from College Station also was the recipient of the 2011 men's indoor track and field award in February.
Cralle was one of 23 Bearkats who were honored as Academic All-Southland Conference selections.
Six Sam Houston student-athletes received either national or regional All-Academic recognition during the 2010-11 school year and 132 Kats were named as members of the Southland Conference Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll.
All these achievements occurred during an athletic year which saw four Sam Houston athletes receive All-America honors, 54 named as All-Southland Conference competitors and SHSU teams placing among the top five in 11 Southland sports.
"We are extremely proud of our athlete's achievements in the classroom and commend our coaching staff for the tremendous job they do in recruiting quality students," Bearkat director of athletics Bobby Williams said. "The number one goal for each of our sports teams is to have our athletes earn their Sam Houston degrees."
Cralle's selection as "Student Athlete-of-the-Year" in men's outdoor and indoor track brought the total number of times for a Bearkat to earn the honor to 11.
Past winners have been Ryan Bright (2007 and 2008 men's basketball), Stephen Prihoda (2007 baseball), Lata Assudani (2007 women's tennis), Jennie Sewell (2007 women's track), Jennifer Heinz (2008 women's golf), Barkley Falner (2009 men's basketball), Irina Sotnikova (2009 women's tennis) and Brittany Brooks (2010 women's basketball).
A three-time Southland Conference hammer champion, Cralle won the NCAA West Regional and Texas Relays championships. The political science major with a 3.36 overall GPA competed in the NCAA outdoor track and field championships where he earned first-team All-American honors with a seventh-place finish (218-1).
"Give the credit for our academic successes to our outstanding student-athletes and our coaching staff who recruit such quality young men and women," Williams said. "We take as much pride in our student-athletes' performances in the class room as their accomplishments in the arena. Each year these talented young people seem to raise the bar for themselves."
Other Bearkats winning major academic honors during the 2010-11 school year included Josten Crow and Lance Pevehouse (men's basketball); Jenny Pence and Nichole Watkins (soccer) and Dayna Galganski and Lisa MacAllister (women's bowling).
Crow and Pevehouse were named as two of the five men's basketball players from NCAA Division I universities in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi to be recognized as members of the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District team.
Pence and Watkins were among the 33 student-athletes selected to the National Soccer College Coaches Association of America University Women Scholar All-South honor squad. The NSCCA South Region consists of NCAA Division I teams from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Galganski and MacAllister were named to the National Ten Pins Coaches Association (NTCA) All-Academic honor squad.
Sam Houston Academic All-Southland Conference honorees included Chris Andreas, Brandon Kimbrel and Ryan Mooney (baseball); Josten Crow and Lance Pevehouse (men's basketball); Britni Martin and Sequeena Thomas (women's basketball); Brandon Closner, Randy Stewart and Travis Watson (football); Shelby Hardy (women's golf); Amanda Biega and Jenny Pence (soocer); Tori Benavidez and Tomi Garrison (softball); Chris Cralle, Henry Jordan and Jason Russell (men's track and field); Morgan Davis, Alyssa Dooley and Jessica Fisher (women's track and field) and Kaylee Hawkins and Kym Loving (volleyball).
Overall, the more than 400 student-athletes who represent the university in 17 intercollegiate sports combined for a grade point averages (GPA) of 2.88 during the fall semester and 2.89 in the spring.
The performance brings the number of consecutive semesters with a 2.8 or higher athletic GPAs to 10. Five sports teams (women's golf, tennis, volleyball, soccer and bowling) each produced GPAs of 3.00 or higher. A total of 33 athletes posted perfect 4.00 individual GPAs in either one or both semesters.
"Chris Thompson and her staff in academics do a great job each year coordinating our student-athletes' efforts in the classroom," Williams added. "Many of our top scholar athletes have already earned their undergraduate degrees and now are busy working towards their Master's."
