For the fourth straight year, The College of Wooster has raised the standard, this time with a record-high 155 Fighting Scot student-athletes qualifying for the North Coast Athletic Conference Academic Honor Roll, which was announced by the league office on Monday. Wooster's 155 honorees are 18 more than last year's total.
To be honored, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore on an active roster in a sport sponsored by the NCAC and hold a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher. In total, 938 Wooster student-athletes have received recognition in the nine-year history of the award.
Of the Scots' contingent, 58 were sophomores, 49 were seniors, and 48 were juniors. Thirteen programs – women's soccer (74 percent), men's golf (73 percent), women's cross country (71 percent), field hockey (69 percent), women's swimming & diving (67 percent), volleyball (67 percent), women's track & field (65 percent), women's lacrosse (59 percent), baseball (58 percent), men's soccer (52 percent), women's golf (50 percent), softball (50 percent), and men's swimming & diving (50 percent) – had at least 50 percent of eligible nominees qualify for the NCAC Academic Honor Roll. Women's soccer and women's track & field led the way with 17 honorees apiece. Other programs with at least 10 included baseball (15), men's soccer (13), women's cross country (12), men's lacrosse (11), men's track & field (11), women's lacrosse (10), and volleyball (10).
On an individual level, alumni Syd Case (volleyball), Wilson Freije (men's soccer), and Miura Wiley (women's soccer) headlined Wooster's academic achievements as NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipients. Wooster tied its single-year record with three selections for the one-time, non-renewable grant of $10,000, with the NCAA still set to announce spring sport recipients later this summer. Seniors Lake Barrett (football) and Will McMichael (cross country/track & field) and alumni Alexa Bencic (women's soccer), Katie Billetdeaux (volleyball), Syd Case (volleyball), and Michael Thomas (baseball) were voted to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America® team, and Wooster set a new record with six recipients for that award this year.
Noteworthy, Wooster had the third-most honorees among the 10 NCAC institutions and one affiliate. Oberlin College's 168 honorees led the way, while in total, a record 1,221 student-athletes were honored across the conference. View the full list of honorees here.