Southeast athletes earn honors for performance in classroom

Student-athletes at Southeast Missouri State claimed 17 Ohio Valley Conference Medals of Honor for the 2007-2008 school year.

The Medal of Honor is given annually to the student-athlete who achieves the highest grade-point average in a conference-sponsored sport.

All 116 of the OVC's Medal of Honor winners — including the 17 from Southeast — achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Southeast's Brandi Gervais, Amy Warren and Mark McNamara were honored with Medals of Honor for both cross country and track.

Other Southeast athletes earning Medals of Honor were Greg Dambach and Andrew Wiese, baseball; Rachel Blunt, women's basketball; Kristi Frick, Amber Garner and Rachel Harrington, soccer; Lindsey Woodworth, softball; Molly Davis, volleyball; Audrey Harwood, Orie Ibe and Dustin Powell, track.

Also, the Southeast women's cross country squad received an OVC Team Academic Achievement Award for having the greatest percentage of its student-athletes in that sport named to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll for having at least a 3.25 GPA.

Brandi Gervais, Laura Gosen, Stephanie Harres, Juli Koenegstein, Katherine Mueller, Kasey Owens, Samantha Shaw and Amy Warren were the members of the cross country squad honored.

Southeast wound up with 121 student-athletes on the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll, from an OVC total of 865.

@z_agate_no tab_no indnt_bld ld:Southeast student-athletes on the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll:

Baseball — Zak Blemker, Greg Dambach, Jim Klocke, Trenton Moses, Lance Rhodes, Blake Slattery, Josh Syberg, Andrew Wiese, Matt Wulfers, Sean Zollner.

Women's basketball — Mikal Bencomo, Rachel Blunt, Mathilde Dufour, Ashley Lovelady, Tarina Nixon, Szandra Pal, Lauren Sharpe.

Football — Robert Anderson, Nick Baer, Steve Callanan, Eddie Calvin, Clayton Caron, Patrick Christian, Nathan Grass, Kyle Hubert, Kendall Magana, Francisco Perez, Colin Schermann, Jonathon Schuller, Ryan Taloa, Joseph Tuineau.

Women's soccer — Courtney Alexander, Nicole Bussman, Kristi Frick, Amber Garner, Rachel Harrington, Vanessa Hart, Casey Kraft, Stephanie Kulavic, Alaina Lacopo, Lauren Lacopo, Megan Matter, Ellen Rehfus.

Softball — Stacia Dopudja, Whitney Dupuis, Carmen Fowler, Megan McDonald, Katelyn Otterness, Lindsey Woodworth.

Women's tennis — Alyce Kelly, Bryce Kristal, Drew Kristal, Elise Nattier, Taylor Orahood.

Men's track/cross country — Dustin Davis, Brad DeMattei, Chance Franklin, Bilal Hameed, Brandon Karcher, Tom Kinder, Chris Loseman, Lucas Luckett, Mark McNamara, Dustin Powell, Antoine Smith, Miles Smith, Ben Stricklin, Danny Stults.

Women's track/cross country — Brianna Egbuka, Precious Elliot, Branki Gervais, Kelly Good, Laura Gosen, Cara Harbstreet, Stephanie Harres, Audry Harwood, Lindsay Hearne, Orie Ibe, Rachel Kahle, Juli Koenegstein, Lauren McNamara, Katherine Mueller, Kasey Owens, Szandra Pal, Taryn Philips, Samantha Shaw, Amy Warren.

Volleyball — Alyssa Aston, Sarah Barth, Molly Davis, Emily Hughes, Claire Keaton, Sirma Ozenir, Brenna Schlader, Kim Unnerstall.

Gymnastics — Sandra Blake, Jennifer Dinan, Lauren Dinan, Alison Ezell, Brianna Gaddie, Kara Gibbons, Maureen Grimaldi, Jacqueline Heath, Kelley Krengiel, Erica Moore, Jena Nguyen, Amanda Schoenbaum, Starlyn Schwartz, Christina Sundgren, Rikara Turner, Bryanna Wong, gymnastics.

OVC cross country poll

The Southeast women's cross country team has been picked to finish fourth in the OVC, while the men were selected fifth.

The OVC preseason cross country poll, voted on by the conference's 10 head coaches, was released Wednesday.

Southeast's women placed third at the 2007 OVC Championships, led by returning runner Juli Koenegstein, who was seventh.

Southeast's men were fourth in last year's OVC meet and return two top-10 finishers in Brandon Karcher (ninth) and Brandon Funderburk (10th).

Eastern Kentucky's men and women are favored heavily to repeat their OVC titles from last season, each receiving nine of 10 first-place votes.

Morehead State was picked second on the men's side, while Murray State was tabbed for second on the women's side.

Southeast opens its season Aug. 30 in the Stegemoller Classic, hosted by Southern Indiana.

Southeast will host the 2008 OVC Championship on Nov. 1.

— From staff reports