BATON ROUGE – The LSU track and field program set a program record Thursday with five student-athletes named to the College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-District VI Team as the Tigers and Lady Tigers have again been honored for their outstanding performance in the classroom.
Sophomore Laura Carleton was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District VI First Team, while senior Melissa Ogbourne, senior Alan Sticker, junior Rachel Laurent and junior Aaron Moore were selected part of the CoSIDA Academic All-District VI Second Team on the strength of their academic and athletic achievements.
Carleton, a redshirt sophomore who recently graduated in three years with her degree management, won a first-team selection on the strength of her perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average. Carleton was LSU’s third track and field athlete in three seasons to receive the University Medal during commencement as she graduated summa cum laude with the top GPA among all students in her graduating class.
Recent track and field athletes to receive the University Medal during their respective commencement are Lindsay Day in December 2008 and Anna Lyons in August 2009.
Carleton has emerged as one of the SEC’s top middle distance runners this season, scoring three points in both the mile at the SEC Indoor Championships and 1,500 meters at the SEC Outdoor Championships for a pair of sixth-place finishes in helping the Lady Tigers win a pair of SEC team titles.
With her selection to the first-team, Carleton is eligible for CoSIDA Academic All-America consideration as first-team all-district selections from eight districts across the country are eligible.
Both Ogbourne and Laurent are second-team selections to the CoSIDA Academic All-District VI Team in each of the last two years following their first career selections in 2010. While leading the way for the Lady Tigers in the classroom, both have earned All-SEC honors in competition in 2011 while also leading the Lady Tigers to a season sweep of team titles at the SEC Indoor and SEC Outdoor Championships.
While finishing as the SEC Indoor and SEC Outdoor runner-up in the triple jump, Ogbourne picked up an All-America selection during the indoor campaign with her seventh-place finish in the event at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She was also this year’s recipient of the Jesse Owens Athletic Award at LSU with the highest cumulative GPA among minority student-athletes on campus.
Like Ogbourne, Laurent also picked up a pair of All-SEC certificates following SEC runner-up finishes in the pole vault during both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Both athletes have earned a spot in the national semifinals of their respective events at 2011 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Ogbourne owns a 3.67 GPA during her collegiate career as she is on track to graduate in December with a degree in human resources development. Laurent follows Ogbourne with a 3.66 GPA for her career, while pursuing her degree in economics. She is on track to graduate from LSU next year.
While leading the Tigers in the classroom, both Moore and Sticker have been chosen academic all-district selections for the first time in their careers as members of the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team.
Sticker has built an impressive resume as one of the Tigers’ leading middle distance runners this season at LSU. He joined Carleton as an LSU graduate during commencement exercises on May 20 while receiving his degree in kinesiology. Sticker graduated cum laude with a 3.71 GPA for his collegiate career.
A former All-SEC javelin thrower, Moore recently competed in the javelin at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds in Bloomington, Ind., while setting a new personal-best throw of 228 feet, 6 inches during the 2011 season. Moore, who has posted a 3.47 GPA while working toward his degree in civil engineering, is a three-time NCAA Championships qualifier in the javelin during his collegiate career.