29 Gauchos Earn Big West Academic All-Conference Honors
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – A total of 29 UC Santa Barbara student-athletes were named to the Big West Academic All-Conference teams for the spring 2011 season it was announced by the league. The Gauchos tied Long Beach State with the most honorees and the UCSB women’s track team had the most recipients of any other team in the conference with 12 athletes making the grade.
To be eligible for the Big West Academic All-Conference team,
student-athletes are required to maintain at least a 3.2 cumulative
grade point average, complete one full academic year at the member
institution prior to the season for which the award is being
received (at least a sophomore academically), and compete in at
least 50 percent of their team’s competitions.
The 12 women’s track and field honorees are Snita
Ashford (sociology major), Jessica Bragg (communication major),
Cherise Dixon (global studies major), Alexandra Francis (global
studies major), Lauren Kodama (environmental studies major), Helena
Montin (pre-biology major), Aislynn Mueller (classics major), Megan
Petkovic (environmental studies major), Breanne Strenkowski
(biology major), Sheneice Vargas (business economics major), Sarah
Vitug (communication major) and Megan Vyenielo (undeclared
major).
For the men’s track team, Nadim Houssain (religious
studies major), Michael Larocca (pre-biology major) and Adam Shigem
(communication) each made the cut.
The baseball team tied UC Irvine with a league-leading three
honorees in seniors Derek Eligio (sociology major), Joe Wallace
(sociology major) and Conor Whalen (business economics
major).
Men’s tennis saw Mathieu Forget (theater major) and
Benjamin Recknagel (business economics major) pick up honors while
the women’s team had three achieve all-academic status: Jill
Damion (communication major), Michelle Murphy (environmental
studies major) and Sofia Novak (global studies major).
Women’s water polo, meanwhile, had five players named to
the team: Michelle Beaudreau (business economics major), Kristin
Kulakowski (bio science major), Kathryn Nelson (global studies
major), Rachel Nelson (pre-biology major) and Katie Zakula
(communication major).
Scott Lewis (psychology major) from the men’s golf team
rounded out the Gaucho accolades.