BATON ROUGE – In a spring season in which LSU’s athletic programs have accounted for six top-10 NCAA finishes in competition, 70 student-athletes were also honored Monday for their efforts in the classroom over the past year with selections to the 2017 Southeastern Conference Spring Academic Honor Roll.
The 2017 SEC Spring Academic Honor Roll includes all student-athletes who have compiled at least a cumulative 3.0 grade-point average for the 2016 summer, 2016 fall and 2017 spring semesters.
The women’s track and field team set the pace once again for LSU with 18 honor roll selections after topping the charts with 19 members last spring. The baseball team picked up 13 selections on the same day it begins its quest for a seventh national championship with Game 1 of the College World Series Finals scheduled for Monday night at 6 p.m. CT.
Men’s track and field and beach volleyball totaled 10 honor roll selections each this spring, while softball added seven, women’s golf picked up five, men’s golf and women’s tennis were awarded three selections each and men’s tennis team rounded out the list with one honor roll member.
Fans tuning in to Game 1 of the CWS Finals tonight will recognize a host of SEC Spring Academic Honor Roll selections in LSU’s starting lineup as pitcher Russell Reynolds, catcher Michael Papierski, second baseman Cole Freeman, shortstop Kramer Robertson, left fielder Antoine Duplantis and designated hitter Beau Jordan are all likely to feature against the Florida Gators.
The switch-hitting Papierski became the first documented player CWS history to homer from both sides of the plate when he drilled two bombs and drove in four runs in LSU’s 6-1 win over Oregon State on Saturday to secure a spot in the championship series. Jordan added a solo homerun of his own in the bracket decider to give the Tigers an opportunity to play for their seventh national championship.
Robertson and Freeman were selected just nine picks apart in the fourth round of the recent Major League Baseball Draft as Robertson went 124th overall to the St. Louis Cardinals and Freeman was taken 133rd overall by the Washington Nationals.
LSU defeated No. 1 seed Oregon State twice en route to the CWS Finals as winning pitchers Alex Lange and Caleb Gilbert both earned honor roll selections on Monday. Lange, the 30th overall pick by the Chicago Cubs in the 2017 Major League Baseball Draft, surrendered just one earned run and struck out eight Beaver batters in 7.1 innings of a 3-1 win on Friday before Gilbert spun a gem with only one earned run and seven strikeouts in 7.1 innings for the victory on Saturday afternoon.
Softball enjoyed a return trip to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City for the third-straight season and fourth time under head coach Beth Torina, and got off to a fast start with a 2-1 victory over national power UCLA in its series opener. The team earned No. 6 rankings in the final USA Today/NFCA and ESPN.com/USA Softball top-25 polls following the WCWS.
Among the four Tigers to start all 70 games during the softball season was sophomore infielder Amber Serrett, who hit .263 with four homeruns and 21 RBI to her credit in 2017. Senior Layna Savoie was the recipient of the Elite 90 award for the 2017 NCAA Division I Softball Championship as the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the WCWS. Savoie boasted a 3.95 GPA in psychology.
Both the men’s and women’s track and field teams tied for seventh place in the final team standings at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships earlier this month as LSU was among five programs that finished among the final team Top 10 on both sides. Ten LSU athletes accounted for 13 All-American performances over the course of the meet held at Oregon’s Hayward Field.
Senior Rebekah Wales and junior Kymber Payne led the Lady Tigers with a pair of fifth-place national finishes in their respective events while closing out the 2017 season as All-Americans. Wales earned her third career All-America honor in the javelin after also winning her second SEC title in the event. Payne reached All-America status for the first time in her career with a fifth-place NCAA finish in the 400-meter hurdles.
The Tigers were led to another top-10 NCAA finish on the men’s side by the likes of seniors LaMar Bruton and Blair Henderson as both ended their careers with All-American campaigns indoors in 2017.
Henderson advanced to his first career NCAA final in the 800 meters at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships back in March where he placed seventh nationally in the event. Bruton, a two-time NCAA Champion in the 4×400-meter relay as a junior in 2016, became an All-American for a third time indoors as he ran as part of LSU’s foursome that placed fourth in defense of its NCAA Indoor crown.
Among those leading the men’s golf team to a fourth-straight top-10 finish at the NCAA Championships this spring was sophomore Luis Gagne, who was recently selected a PING Honorable Mention All-American again for the second-straight season. The Tigers finished ninth in the field while ending up just one place and two shots outside of returning to match play for the fourth season in a row.
Also a Second-Team All-SEC performer in 2017, Gagne capped his sophomore campaign with a career-low 71.35 scoring average in 15 tournament starts while winning two titles and earning seven top-10 finishes.
Headlining the women’s golf team during the 2017 spring season was senior Caroline Nistrup as she ended her career with an appearance at the NCAA Lubbock Regional where she tied for 41st place. Nistrup ended her career with the second-lowest scoring average for a career in school history while averaging 73.03 strokes per round in her four seasons at LSU, including a team-leading 72.98 scoring average for 2016-17.
Beach volleyball enjoyed a historic season this spring in which the team earned its first-ever NCAA Championships selections as the No. 7 seed in the tournament. The Tigers finished the championship 1-2 while picking up the program’s first ever NCAA win against No. 6 seed Long Beach State. LSU achieved its highest ever ranking at No. 6 in both the AVCA and DiG Magazine rankings at the end of the season.
Katie Lindelow was part of LSU’s No. 3 pair that notched an impressive 25-4 overall record on the season while pacing the team with 10 wins against nationally-ranked opponents. At the NCAA Championships, Lindelow helped score the match-clinching point in comeback fashion against Long Beach State.
Women’s tennis was led into the Round of 32 at the NCAA Championships by the likes of senior Joana Valle Costa and junior Ryann Foster as both were named ITA Doubles All-Americans this spring with Costa adding a title of ITA Singles All-American to her resume. They formed the No. 16-ranked doubles pairing in the country this season and put together the most impressive postseason run in the program’s history while advancing to the NCAA Tournament semifinals in the doubles competition.
Valle Costa even solidified her status as one of the top singles players in the country this season while advancing to the Round of 16 at the NCAA Division I Women’s Singles Championships earlier this month.
Senior Jordan Daigle was the standout performer of the men’s tennis team in 2017 as he competed in the first round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Singles Championship before ending his career in the Round of 32 at the NCAA Doubles Championships in May. The two-time Second-Team All-SEC performer tallied 38 singles victories in his career.
Any student-athlete who participates in an SEC championship sport or a student-athlete who particiapates in a sport listed on his or her institution’s NCAA Sports Sponsorship Form is eligible for nomination to the Academic Honor Roll. The following criteria should be followed: (1) A student-athlete must have a grade-point average of 3.0 or above for either the preceding academic year (two semester or three quarters) or have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above at the nominating institution. (2) If a student-athlete attends summer school, his or her GPA during the summer academic term must be included in the calculation used to determine eligibility for the Academic Honor Roll. (3) Student-athletes eligible for the Honor Roll include those receiving an athletics scholarship, recipients of an athletics award (i.e. letterwinner) and non-scholarship student-athletes who have been on a varsity team for two seasons. (4) Prior to being nominated, a student-athlete must have successfully completed 24 semester or 36 quarter hours of non-remedial academic credit toward a baccalaureate degree at the nominating institution. (5) The student-athlete must have been a member of a varsity team for the sports entire NCAA Championship segment.
Spring 2017 SEC Academic Honor Roll
Student-Athletes, Sport, Major
Bryce Adams, Baseball Sports Administration
Brennan Breaux, Baseball General Business
Nick Coomes, Baseball General Business
Antoine Duplantis, Baseball Sports Administration
Cole Freeman, Baseball Interdisciplinary Studies
Caleb Gilbert, Baseball Civil Engineering
Beau Jordan, Baseball General Business
Hunter Kiel, Baseball Sports Administration
Alex Lange, Baseball Finance
Michael Papierski, Baseball Sports Administration
Russell Reynolds, Baseball Sports Administration
Kramer Robertson, Baseball Sports Administration
Collin Strall, Baseball Sports Administration
Ashley Allmer, Beach Volleyball Kinesiology
Jeni Clark, Beach Volleyball Finance
Megan Davenport, Beach Volleyball History
Emma Hiller, Beach Volleyball Textile, Apparel, and Merchandising
Lilly Kessler, Beach Volleyball Kinesiology
Maddie Ligon, Beach Volleyball Art History
Katie Lindelow, Beach Volleyball Masters in Sport Management
Callan Molle, Beach Volleyball Biology
Mandi Orellana, Beach Volleyball Kinesiology
Riley Young, Beach Volleyball Marketing
Luis Gagne, Men’s Golf Sports Administration
Rhyne Jones, Men’s Golf Sports Administration
Brandon Pierce, Men’s Golf Sports Administration
Claudia De Antonio, Women’s Golf International Trade & Finance
Kathleen Gallagher, Women’s Golf General Business
Carly Goldstein, Women’s Golf Interdisciplinary Studies
Marina Hedlund, Women’s Golf General Business
Caroline Nistrup, Women’s Golf Sports Administration
Sydney Loupe, Softball Sports Administration
Shemiah Sanchez, Softball Sports Administration
Layna Savoie, Softball Psychology
Amber Serrett, Softball Kinesiology
Sydney Smith, Softball General Business
Elyse Thornhill, Softball Animal Science
Akiya Thymes, Softball Kinesiology
Jordan Daigle, Men’s Tennis Sports Administration
Ryann Foster, Women’s Tennis Nutrition & Food
Jessica Golovin, Women’s Tennis Sports Administration
Joana Valle Costa, Women’s Tennis Sports Administration
Tommy Brocato, Men’s Track & Field Electrical Engineering
LaMar Bruton, Men’s Track & Field Sports Administration
Chadd Burns, Men’s Track & Field Kinesiology
Jaron Flournoy, Men’s Track & Field Sports Administration
Blair Henderson, Men’s Track & Field Kinesiology
Christian Johnson, Men’s Track & Field Biology
Bryan Stamey, Men’s Track & Field Electrical Engineering
Daniel Tanner, Men’s Track & Field Petroleum Engineering
Marcus Tiner, Men’s Track & Field Mass Communications
Jack Wilkes, Men’s Track & Field Interdisciplinary Studies
Danielle Avery, Women’s Track & Field Finance
Hannah Deworth, Women’s Track & Field Nutrition & Food
Bria Druilhet, Women’s Track & Field Psychology
Nataliyah Friar, Women’s Track & Field Psychology
Monica Guillot, Women’s Track & Field Chemical Engineering
Keterra Harris, Women’s Track & Field Sports Administration
Brittany Kelly, Women’s Track & Field Kinesiology
Erika Lewis, Women’s Track & Field Biology
Rebecca Little, Women’s Track & Field Finance
Jordan McClendon, Women’s Track & Field Psychology
Kymber Payne, Women’s Track & Field Interdisciplinary Studies
Bryiana Richardson, Women’s Track & Field Kinesiology
Morgan Schuetz, Women’s Track & Field Kinesiology
Amy Stelly, Women’s Track & Field Kinesiology
Rebekah Wales, Women’s Track & Field Accounting
Jenna Walker, Women’s Track & Field Petroleum Engineering
Ashley Welborn, Women’s Track & Field Mathematics
Sidnie Wilder, Women’s Track & Field Psychology