23 Waubonsee student-athletes and 5 teams recognized
The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) recently announced the student/athletes that earned All-Academic honors for 2015-2016. A total of 23 Waubonsee Community College student/athletes were among the honorees from across the country that were recognized for their excellence in the classroom this past school year. In addition, five of Waubonsee’s 12 teams achieved NJCAA Academic Team of the Year nominations.
Two Chiefs’ student-athletes achieved the Pinnacle Award for Academic Excellence with a 4.0 grade-point-average (GPA). Emily Grams, a soccer player from Kaneland High School, along with tennis player William Sitton from Plainfield North High School, both achieved this lofty status.
Seven Waubonsee student-athletes were honored with the Superior Academic Achievement Award by attaining an overall grade-point-average of 3.80 up to 3.99. The group includes volleyball players Anna Senese from Kaneland High School and Vanessa Melendez from Plano, baseball pitchers Brett Becker from Mendota and James Tunney from Aurora West High School, men’s soccer player Kyle Romas from Kaneland, and women’s soccer players Nicole Charielle from Oswego and Nicole DeLarm from Goose Lake, Iowa.
Fourteen individuals garnered the Exemplary Academic Achievement Award with a GPA between 3.60 and 3.79 overall. The group consisted of four women’s cross country runners, Nixa Del Real Robles and Isabel Torres from Aurora East High School, Natalie Bartos from Batavia, and Abigail Etheridge from Oswego. Volleyball players Bailey Martenson from Indian Creek High School and Haley Koziol from Yorkville, and golfers Jacob Cook from DeKalb and Jakob Sanders from Kaneland were among the honorees. Tennis player Connor Anderson from St. Charles East High School, basketball player Elizabeth Skaggs and baseball player Jared Liebelt from Aurora West High School, soccer player Jack Wolf and cross country runner James Walker from Kaneland, and soccer player Nina Ellmann from Batavia rounded out the contingent.
Waubonsee’s Women’s Cross Country team finished sixth nationally among all NJCAA Cross Country squads with a team GPA of 3.47 overall. Four other teams were also recognized for achieving at least a 3.00 team GPA to be among the NJCAA’s Academic Team of the Year nominees. They included Women’s Volleyball, Women’s Tennis, Women’s Soccer and the Chiefs’ Baseball team.
