David Willauer– San Marcos, CA — Cal State San Marcos Athletics is taking this week to recognize the academic achievements of its student-athletes due to the cancellation of the CSUSM Scholar-Athlete Luncheon presented by Federated Insurance.
To wrap up the honorees for the week, Dr. Ben Cherry, Faculty Athletics Representative (F.A.R.), revealed the first-ever Cougar All-Academic Team and explains how it came to be.
From Cherry: The new F.A.R. Cougar All-Academic Team came about earlier this academic year soon after I had completed my review of each of our student-athletes’ transcripts. I was impressed by how many of our student-athletes were achieving stellar GPAs. Since I knew that our Athletics Department had recently achieved the highest department GPA (3.21) in our 20+ year history—and that many of our teams shattered their previous GPA records—I wanted to bring attention to the individual student-athletes who were leading their teams by setting exemplar marks in the classroom.
Our teams are achieving higher GPAs than ever before, and that is directly the result of the cumulative effect of individual student-athletes pushing themselves to achieve higher individual GPAs. I thought it important for us to not only celebrate the team achievements, but also to recognize the student earning the top GPA within each team. We chose to identify the student-athlete on each team who achieved the highest GPA in the past two semesters (Spring 2019 and Fall 2019) to be named to this exclusive F.A.R. Cougar All-Academic Team. Only one person can be selected from each team so it proved to be a challenge with a few teams who had multiple students earning 4.0 GPAs last calendar year. In the case of a tie, we awarded the student-athlete who earned the most units in the calendar year. In cases where we needed a second tie-breaker, we awarded it to the student-athlete with the most cumulative units earned toward graduation.
We know from research that the culture of a team—including supportive environments, effective structures, and clear direction of purpose—drives performance forward. Our coaches, our teammates, and our department are all pointing in the right direction toward higher academic achievement. This is an incredible time to be part of CSUSM Athletics.
While I would have enjoyed congratulating each of this year’s inaugural F.A.R. Cougar All-Academic Team award winners, my congratulations via this press release will have to suffice. Each of these student-athletes are setting a very high standard for themselves and their teammates and they are pushing our Athletics program higher and higher academically. I couldn’t be more proud of this select group of exceptional student-athletes.
Student-athletes to earn the honor from each team are:
| Sport | Name |
|---|---|
| Baseball | Dylan Wannamaker |
| Men’s Basketball | Jayce McCain |
| Women’s Basketball | Akayla Hackson |
| Men’s Cross Country | Joshua Litwiller |
| Women’s Cross Country | Clarissa Garcia |
| Men’s Golf | Daniel Kim |
| Women’s Golf | Claire Hogle |
| Men’s Soccer | Marcos Lopez |
| Women’s Soccer | Gabi Manno |
| Softball | Carly Slack |
| Men’s Track & Field | Joshua Litwiller |
| Women’s Track & Field | Kylene Shuler |
| Volleyball | Micah Hébert |
Congratulations to all the award winners this week. Pins and awards will be distributed at a later date. Other awards presented this week included the Cougar Award, the Big Blue Award and the Mangrum Award.
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PLAYERS MENTIONED
- #5 Micah Hébert- OH 5′ 9″ Junior
- #10 Gabi Manno – D 5′ 8″ Redshirt Junior Chapparal HS
- #5 Jayce McCain – G 6′ 2″ 165 lbs Redshirt Freshman Folsom HS
- #20 Marcos Lopez – D 5′ 9″ 160 lbs Sophomore Carlsbad HS
- Clarissa Garcia – D 5′ 4″ Junior West Hills HS
- Kylene Shuler – J Senior Julian HS
- #27 Dylan Wannamaker – RHP 5′ 10″ 190 lbs Senior R
- Joshua Litwiller – D Senior La Costa Canyon HS
- #13 Akayla Hackson – G 5′ 8″ Junior Pinewood HS / California Baptist
- #17 Carly Slack – RHP 5′ 4″ Junior R
