Mercer leads Southern Conference honor roll

Mercer placed a conference-best 296 student-athletes on the Southern Conference academic honor roll for the 2015-16 academic year as the conference office announced the honorees Tuesday.

For the second straight year, the Bears led the conference in honorees, improving on the 263 who earned the distinction during the 2014-15 campaign. Mercer’s 2016 total was 90 more than any other institution with Wofford finishing second on the list with 206 student-athletes.

Of the 1,964 student-athletes on the list, 398 earned the Commissioner’s Medal, awarded to student-athletes who attain a GPA of 3.8 or higher throughout the year. That standard is up from 3.5 in previous years. The Bears had 63 recipients of the honor.

A conference-record 146 student-athletes boasted perfect 4.0 GPAs in 2015-16, surpassing the previous standard of 122 set last year. Mercer had 26 of the student-athletes to record a 4.0 GPA.

Mercer’s 4.0 student-athletes were: Adam Corn, baseball; Conner Herd, baseball; Howard Joe, baseball; Emma Peel, beach volleyball; Sophie Peel, beach volleyball; Dorian Kithcart, football; Thomas Marchman, football; Jack Raines, football; Zechariah Rice, football; Jim Beatty, men’s golf; Jerry Ren, men’s golf; David Murtaugh, men’s soccer; Natalie Shiver, softball; Jordan Gollon, volleyball/beach volleyball; Victoria Penrod, volleyball/beach volleyball; Amanda Thompson, women’s basketball; Katherine Alligood, women’s cross country/track & field; Courtney Czerniak, women’s cross country/track & field; Katherine Hanna, women’s golf; Haleigh Brooks, women’s lacrosse; Kendall Garrett, women’s lacrosse; Molly Lee, women’s lacrosse; Maggie Cropp, women’s soccer; Taylor Dowse, women’s soccer; Roxanne Bartz, women’s tennis; Callie Hammerle, women’s track and field.

This story was originally published July 5, 2016 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Mercer leads Southern Conference honor roll."