UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – A total of 370 awards, the second-highest total of all-time, were presented to Penn State student-athletes April 13 at the 28th annual SAAB Academic Achievement Awards Banquet.
Sponsored by the Milton and Lois Morgan Academic Support Center for Student-Athletes and the Student-Athlete Advisory Board (SAAB), awards were presented to 292 student-athletes for their academic accomplishments in 2013-14. The celebration of academic excellence was held at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.
Director of Athletics Sandy Barbour and Russ Mushinsky, director of the Morgan Center, were among the speakers. SAAB President Tori Waldner (women’s basketball; Milton, Georgia) and SAAB Banquet chair Ellen Ceresko (women’s golf; Jefferson Township) also spoke and presented awards.
The 370 awards and 292 student-athlete honorees were the second-highest in the 28 years of the SAAB banquet, topped only by the 389 award and 295 honorees in 2012-13.
In addition, 92 awards were made to seniors who had a 3.0 or higher grade-point average through the 2014 fall semester.
Penn State’s 31 varsity teams combined to earn a grade-point average of 3.08, with the 15 women’s programs posting a 3.26 GPA. A total of19 teams earned a GPA of 3.0 or higher. There are approximately 800 Penn State student-athletes on varsity teams.
“This is a great celebration of what we’re all about,” Barbour told the student-athletes, coaches and staff in attendance. “It’s about the people, the passion and purpose. I could not be prouder of how our student-athletes represent our University.”
Coach Char Morett’s field hockey team and coach Greg Nye’s men’s golf team won the Varsity "S" Awards, presented to the men's and women's teams with the highest team GPAs. Faculty Athletics Representative Linda Caldwell and Lois Morgan presented the men's golf team with the Milt Morgan Jr. Highest Team GPA Award for all sports for the third time.
The Nittany Lion Club annually presents the True Grit Award to two student-athletes for overcoming adversities while continuing to succeed in the classroom and on the athletic field during their careers. Men’s distance runner Glenn Burkhart (Kennett Square) and women’s soccer player Mallory Weber (Novi, Michigan) were recognized as the recipients during the banquet.
For the eighth time, the SAAB Awards (Student-Athletes Above and Beyond) were presented. The recipients were women’s golfer Katlyn Elliott (Peterborough, Ontario, Canada) and women’s soccer player Kindrah Kohne (Homer, New York). An award for THON was presented to women’s golf student-athlete Elyse Archambault (St-Jean-sur-Rich, Quebec, Canada) for raising the most donations for the Four Diamonds Fund and THON 2014.
The CHAMPS Cup Awards for community outreach were presented for the 10th time. Claiming the small teams (20 or fewer on roster) award was the women's gymnastics team. The large teams (20 or more on roster) award went to the Nittany Lion football team’s defensive unit.
In addition, 38 Penn State student-athletes were recognized for participating in the Athletic Director's Leadership Institute. Thirty student-athletes also were recognized for their induction into Spiritus Leoninus, the Intercollegiate Athletics honor society.
Penn State student-athletes, who have captured 18 Big Ten Championships and five NCAA titles since September 2012, consistently have been among the nation's most successful in earning their degrees. Among some of the recent academic accomplishments are:
-- Penn State student-athletes shattered school records during the 2014 fall semester, including a record 500 earning a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher. Among the 500 Nittany Lion student-athletes earning at least a 3.0 GPA, a school record 241 garnered dean's list honors during the 2014 fall semester by posting a GPA of 3.50 or higher. The combined average GPA was 3.08 among Penn State's 31 varsity sports during the fall semester.
-- A school record 70 Penn State student-athletes from eight winter teams Academic All-Big Ten honors, giving the Nittany Lions 142 honors so far in 2014-15;
-- Last October, the NCAA's annual study of institutions across the nation revealed Penn State student-athletes at the University Park campus earned a Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 89 percent compared to the 82 percent average for all Division I institutions. The 89 percent figure was second-highest, to Northwestern, among Big Ten Conference institutions.
-- Penn State's 186 College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-Americans all-time ranks No. 3 among Division I institutions.
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