May 25, 2012
RUSTON - A total of 33 Louisiana Tech student-athletes received degrees during spring commencement exercises held at the Thomas Assembly Center last Saturday while another 27 earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average during the spring quarter.
The 33 graduates represent 14 of the University's 16 athletic programs, including football (7), soccer (6), women's track and field (4), men's track and field (4), women's basketball (3), tennis (3), baseball (2), men's basketball (2), bowling (1) and softball (1).
Tech's spring graduates include Jasmine Bendolph (women's basketball), Shante Benion (Women's T&F), Shantale Bramble-Donaldson (women's basketball), Colby Cameron (football), Brittany Coffinbargar (soccer), Steven Cortez (men's T&F), Dominique Crosby (women's track), Scotti Culton (soccer), Kyle Davis (men's T&F), Maartje De Wit (tennis), Chelsea Dressel (women's track), Jay Dudley (football), Alena Erofeyeva (tennis), Brandon Gibson (men's basketball), Jamie Gilley (baseball), Houston Granger (bowling), Tarik Hakmi (football), Stacia Hanneman (women's T&F), Eric Harper (football), John Hinton (football), Rachel King (soccer), Houston Lantrip (football), Olivia Lukasewich (soccer), Amy Quintana (soccer), Melvin Sewell (men's T&F), Josh Slocum (men's T&F), Romario Souza (men's basketball), Jeb Stefan (baseball), Zach Voss (football), Chelsea White (soccer), Charday Wilson (softball), Kiara Young (women's basketball) and Anna Zurek(tennis).
In addition, Tech boasted 27 student-athletes with perfect 4.0 grade point averages and another 31 with at least a 3.5.
Those student-athletes earning a 4.0 grade point average this spring included Chelsea Hayes (women's T&F), Mary Kate Hays (women's T&F), Lauren Africa (soccer), Lindsay Brough (soccer), Rebecca Gwatkin (soccer), Sophie Lynch (soccer), Morgan Rockwell (soccer), Maleah Schorpp (soccer), Savannah Dollar (softball), Erin Kipp (softball), Kanedria Andrews (women's basketball), Savannah Langston (women's basketball), Reagan Himmelberg (volleyball), Ana Rodrigues (volleyball), Elne Barnard (tennis), Jack Lempke (golf), Kay Rawls (bowling), Beau Bayliss (baseball), Daniel Doss (baseball), Justin Gordey (baseball), and Blake Johnson (baseball), Taylor Burch (football/baseball), Zack Griffith (football), Phillip Longino (football), Matt Nelson (football), Carter Street (football) and Andre Taylor(football).
Louisiana Tech's student-athletes continue to shine in the classroom as proven by their academic results. This past year, Louisiana Tech saw eight of its 16 NCAA sanctioned programs record their highest multi-year APR rates ever while four of the programs registered their highest single year APR score ever.
Louisiana Tech's student-athletes also recorded a four-year graduation success rate of 72 percent which ranks as the second highest in the state among Division I football-playing public institutions and among the best in the nation (NCAA Federal Graduation Rate Report released October of 2011).
