CU Athletics Honors Its Academic Best

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

April 02, 2015 | Cross Country, Football, General, Tennis, Track and Field, Women's Basketball, Lacrosse, Soccer, Skiing, Herbst Academic Center

BOULDER -- Over three dozen University of Colorado student-athletes, including a record 24 with perfect 4.00 grade point averages last year, were honored for a variety of outstanding academic accomplishments Thursday morning at the school's 23rd Annual Student-Athlete Academic Recognition Banquet.

Over 300 people attended the event, held in the Byron White Club Lounge at CU's Folsom Field.

The Clancy A. Herbst, Jr., Student-Athlete Achievement Award was presented to Derek McCartney (football), as the award is given to athletes who overcome personal, academic or emotional challenges or difficulties to succeed both academically and athletically.

McCartney, the grandson of former head coach Bill McCartney, lost his high school sweetheart Kaylee McBeth, to a heart condition last spring, not too long after he lost his grandmother, Lyndi, whom he was also very close to. He has persevered through all this heartbreak to accumulate 88 credit hours (70 at CU) toward a degree in Integrative Physiology, as he has designs on a track for pre-med and eventually medical school.

Six students were presented with the Scholar-Athlete Award, as the recipients include a member of the sophomore and junior classes and male and female members from the senior class who have accumulated the highest cumulative grade point average in their respective class (and are awarded by academic year, not eligibility class). However, this year there was a three-way tie for the sophomore honor, with the trio all maintaining perfect 4.0 grade points. The winners were:

Will Oliver, Sr., Football (3.762 GPA, Finance-Accounting)
Julyette Steur, Sr., Tennis (3.800 GPA, Information Management and Operations Management)
Brooke Wales Granstrom, Jr., Skiing (3.975 GPA, Integrative Physiology)
David Emmert, Soph., Cross Country & Track (4.00 GPA, Aerospace Engineering)
Mandy Ortiz, Soph., Cross Country & Track (4.00 GPA, Integrative Physiology)
Paige Soenksen, Soph., Lacrosse (4.00 GPA, International Affairs & Chinese)

Granstrom also received the honor her sophomore year, while Oliver was also the recipient of the inaugural Student-Athlete of the Year honor from the Colorado Chapter of the National Football Foundation, besting the top candidates from the state's nine other colleges that sponsor football.

Academic team winners for grade point average were the women's cross country team for a sport with its championship in the fall semester (3.346) and the women's ski team for those who compete in the spring semester (3.608). The women's tennis team edged out for other programs for the most improved honor for a team, as its aggregate GPA rose .359 (from 2.981 to 3.340) over the last two semesters, edging women's basketball, men's cross country, women's golf and men's track and field.

In the 2013 calendar year, there were 24 student-athletes who studied to perfection, as in 4.00 grade point averages for at least one semester if not the full year. All were thus inducted into CU's 4.0 club; membership now stands at 296 since 1994 and the 23 for the last year topped the previous high of 21 set in 2002 and matched last year. Those honored included Emmert, Granstrom, Oliver, Ortiz and Soenksen, with that quartet joined by:

Kaitlyn Benner (majoring in Chemical and Biological Engineering), Sophie Hallam-Eames (Environmental Studies), Shalaya Kipp (Integrative Physiology), Ben Saarel (Engineering Physics), Elizabeth Tremblay (Integrative Physiology), Rachel Viger (Chemical Engineering) and Michaela Wenning (Chemical Engineering), all on the cross country and/or track teams; Camilla Brautaset (Business), Thea Grosvold (Finance), Shane McLean (Studio Arts), Maja Solbakken (Sociology) and Clare Wise (Chemical and Biological Engineering), all members of the ski team; Kaiwi Crabb (Communication), football; Sydney Evensen (Business), lacrosse; Madison Hall (Business) and Hayley Hughes (Finance), soccer; Rachel Hargis (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), basketball; Philip Juel-Berg (Economics), golf; and Elysse Richardson (Psychology), volleyball.

Out of 344 student-athletes, 179 attained a 3.0 grade point either cumulatively or for the spring and/or fall semesters through 2014, 83 of whom owned 3.5 averages or better (or 52 percent, the first time ever over 50 percent). The fall grade point average of all 342 worked to a 2.931 was the best on record in over 20 years of compiling the information, as was the cumulative average overall of 2.961. Those are impressive numbers when realized that CU's curriculum is one of the toughest in Division I athletics, as evidenced by the roll call of majors being undertaken by many of the award winners.

Alexis Austin, a junior on the volleyball team and Ashley Tiefel, a senior on the women's tennis squad were recognized as recipients of the Most Improved Student-Athlete Awards.

Maja Solbakken with Academic Coordinator Chris Howlett

There were four recipients of the Byron R. White Leadership and Initiative Award, given to the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior student-athletes who have exhibited outstanding initiative and demonstrates a strong commitment to service to the CU and Boulder communities. Those winners were Bianca Jones (senior, soccer), Connor Winter (junior, cross country & track), Maja Solbakken (sophomore, skiing) and Dani Brownell-Patty (freshman, skiing).

The Student Support Services Academic Award was presented to Sam Durham, a senior tutor for the Herbst Academic Center. The owner of a 3.337 grade point average as a Business Management major and Economics minor, this award is presented to a student worker who maintains a 3.0 GPA while demonstrating strong commitment and leadership to CU athletics.

Closing comments were made by senior running back Malcolm Creer, who saw a promising football future diminish after he suffered a torn ACL as a freshman. A dedicated student who has conquered dyslexia, he spoke about his journey to and during his time at CU, how it started out with a desire to repay his mother who, as a single parent, worked many jobs to provide for the best for her two sons. But after the injury, he had to reassess practically everything in his life, overcoming obstacles and changing his path from a future in football to one where he needed to focus on a career. He praised the academic staff for all they do to push the student-athletes to work hard and become the best they can be, citing himself as one of their success stories.