Published on July 2, 2012 by Joey Mullins  

The Southern Conference released its 2011-12 Honor Roll on Monday and 118 Samford student-athletes were named to the list. Overall, 1,950 student-athletes were honored from the league's 12 member institutions.

The 1,950 students recognized is the second-highest total of honorees since the league began compiling its annual honor roll in 1989.

The average GPA of the student-athletes was 3.46, and 45 percent of the recognized student-athletes achieved at least a 3.5 grade point average, including 90 students who posted a 4.0. A total of five Samford student-athletes (Mary Grabowsky from soccer, Garrison Laduca from men's tennis, Emily Mallory from women's tennis, Christy Robinson from women's basketball and Juliane Surane from softball) earned a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Those 878 student-athletes who attained a 3.5 GPA or higher were further honored with the Commissioner's Medal, with 59 Samford student-athletes among those to earn the Commissioner's Medal.

Davidson landed a league-high 270 student-athletes on the honor roll. Six of the 12 schools either maintained or increased their numbers from the previous year.

Football boasted the most student-athletes on the list with 286, followed by women's soccer with 213, women's track and field and cross country with 212 and baseball with 155. All student-athletes from the league's member institutions are included on the list, which includes all 19 SoCon sponsored sports as well as non-sponsored sports in field hockey, lacrosse, swimming, equestrian, rifle and sailing. League schools who sponsor swimming are members of the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association.

Southern Conference athletic directors established the honor roll prior to the 1988-89 athletic season as a way to recognize the league's outstanding student-athletes. The academic honor roll consists of student-athletes who participated in varsity sports at member institutions and posted a 3.0 grade point average or higher while passing at least 24 hours in two semesters of classes or its equivalent for other academic calendars.

 

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.