BATON ROUGE — Former baseball standouts Mike Koerner and Tom Bernhardt, key members of LSU’s last national championship team in 1997 head the list of 41 LSU student-athletes who will participate in the spring commencement exercises Friday at the Maravich Assembly Center and other venues on the LSU campus.
Koerner is graduating with a Business degree in Management, while Bernhardt is graduating with an Arts and Sciences degree in General Studies.
Jermey Witten, a two-sport athlete and member of the same 1997 national champion baseball team with Koerner and Bernhardt, will graduate with an Education degree in Kinesiology, but will be in Birmingham, Ala., trying to help the Tigers to the Southeastern Conference Tournament title. Witten was also a punter and receiver for the LSU football team.
Also accepting degrees on Friday will be gymnastics All-Americans Abbey Burns and Stacey Wegener. Each will earn Education degrees in Kinesiology. Burns will graduate magna cum laude, while Wegener will graduate cum laude.
Among other athletes graduating are two-time All-SEC golfer Lisette Lee in Finance and Corey Gibbs, who led the SEC in punting average in 1999, in General Studies. Lee will graduate summa cum laude.
Other LSU athletes graduating with honors include: Christine Dessauer in volleyball, magna cum laude (Psychology); Kerry Descalopoulis, gymnastics, cum laude (Elementary Education); Kim Descalopoulis, gymnastics, cum laude (Elementary Education).
The complete list of graduates for the 2000 Spring Commencement Exercises:
Agriculture: Keith Hoffield, track and field (Poultry Science).
Arts & Sciences: Tom Bernhardt, baseball (General Studies); Jason Carr, swimming (Geography); Christine Dessauer, volleyball (Psychology); Corey Gibbs, football (General Sciences); Jessica Miranda, volleyball (Psychology); Anyssa Oliverez, track and field (General Studies).
Basic Sciences: Samer Shamieh, tennis (Zoology); John Uffman, track and field (Zoology).
Business: Richard Burke, football (Marketing); Matt Colvin, baseball (Information Systems); Jason Humphries, golf (Marketing); Mike Koerner, baseball (Management); Lisette Lee, golf (Finance); Gretchen Mury, diving (Marketing); Erik Petursson, diving (International Trade & Finance); Cindy Rome, track and field (Marketing); Joshua Stibrich, swimming (Accounting); Jeremy Wilkinson, golf (Finance).
Design: Michael Ayer, swimming (Architecture); Nikki Rasheed, tennis (Graphic Design).
Education: Ashley Bankston, basketball (Kinesiology); Colleen Barger, gymnastics (Kinesiology); Harold Bishop, football (Kinesiology); Abbey Burns, gymnastics (Kinesiology); Kerry Descalopoulis, gymnastics (Elementary Education); Kim Descalopoulis, gymnastics (Elementary Education);? Jill Galatas, swimming (Kinesiology); Blaine McCorkle, football (Kinesiology); Joey Moore, track and field (Kinesiology); Kristin Schlipf, swimming (Kinesiology); Damien Tullier, football (Kinesiology); Todd Tyson, track and field (Kinesiology); Stacey Wegener, gymnastics (Kinesiology); Jermey Witten, football/baseball (Kinesiology).
Engineering: Walead Atiyeh, track and field (Electrical/Computer Engineering); Jeff Maynor, swimming (Chemical Engineering).
Mass Communication: Marguerite Atchley, swimming (Electronic Media); Katie Burke, swimming (Advertising); Amanda Robie, swimming (Advertising).
School of Music: Danny Boyd, football (Music Education).