Northwest Honors Student-Athletes for Academic Achievements

A total of sixty-six Northwest student-athletes were honored for outstanding academic accomplishments Wednesday, May 11 at the school’s inaugural student-athlete academic recognition banquet.

Close to 100 people attended the event, which included athletes, coaches and administrators, held in the Baptist Student Union on the Senatobia campus. Student-athletes in attendance had to have earned a 3.5 GPA during the 2015-16 year.

“This event was two years in the making,” second-year athletic academic advisor Jake Long said. “A big thank you to our administration, especially Dr. Spears, Larry Simpson and Richie Lawson, for allowing us to recognize these hard-working student-athletes. Often times on-the-field accomplishments overshadow academic success. Coach (Bubba) Skelton and I felt we needed to take this opportunity to recognize our athletes’ work in the classroom. This is a great event that we hope becomes an annual tradition.”

Twelve student-athletes were presented with Academic Excellence awards, including Lydia Cross, Brooke Lester, Abigail Rucker and Kayleigh Sims from women’s soccer, Kirill Safrin from men’s soccer, Jim Speights and Aleck Hobson from football, Hunter Lacefield from baseball, Erin Claire Stegall, Olivia Owen and Heath Griffith from softball and Alyssia King from women’s basketball. The criteria was completing 50 hours with a 3.85 GPA or better and in line to graduate within their first four semesters.

Lacefield, of Senatobia, was recognized as having the top male GPA with a 3.95 in biology, while Sims, of Randolph, and Lester, of Caledonia, both finished with 4.0 GPAs as the top females, studying elementary education and pre-physical therapy.

In the 2015-16 calendar year, there were 117 student-athletes who achieved 3.00 grade-point averages for at least one semester and 21 athletes with a 4.0.

Northwest had 74 student-athletes graduate this past Friday during the 100th commencement and is anticipating a near 97 percent graduation/transfer rate of eligible sophomores.

A photo gallery from the event is available at www.nwccrangers.com.