Six Individuals And Women’s Team Earn All-Academic Recognition
The University of South Alabama 2013-2014 Track and Field team had six student-athletes earn All-Academic honors from the US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Additionally, the women’s team was named one of the organizations All-Academic teams.
All six student-athletes earned All-Sun Belt Conference honors in their respective events this season while Kotze, Smith, Hixon and Beans all setting new Jaguar records in their events.
The women’s team were rewarded for finishing the season with a combined GPA of 3.29, which is well above the team-wide minimum required for All-Academic Team status, which is 3.00.
Jan-Louw Kotze, Connor Smith, and Patrick Rohr were honorees from the men’s team which included 496 student-athletes from 165 institutions. Leah Hixon, Kaitlyn Beans and Bobbie Williamson were among 727 women from 193 schools who were honored.
Kotze earned a 4.0 GPA through his sophomore year in exercise science while advancing to the NCAA Preliminaries in the discus for the second consecutive year and was just one spot shy of advancing to the national championship meet.
Smith earned a 3.48 GPA and was named to the list for the second-consecutive year. As a senior, he graduated with his degree in engineering while earning a spot in the regional preliminary round of the pole vault and finished 35th overall.
Rohr, also an engineering major, earned a 3.39 GPA as a sophomore and finished 44th in the regional competition.
Hixon led the lady Jags with a 3.85 GPA and earned her degree as a biology major while earning the honor for the second conecutive season. She finished 25th at the regionals in the javelin throw.
Beans earned a 3.58 GPA in her freshman year as a biomedical sciences major. She qualified for the NCAA Championships in the triple jump and finished 17th place nationally.
Williamson finished her career with a 3.36 cumulative GPA and earned her degree as a nurse major. She advanced to the regional competition in the hammer throw and was less than half-a-meter short of qualifying for the nationals as she finished in 13th place.