37 Alabama Freshmen Named to Conference Academic Honor Roll
11/23/2003 12:00:00 AM | General
Thirty-seven University of Alabama student-athletes were named to the 2003 Southeastern Conference Freshmen Academic Honor Roll this week according to SEC Commissioner Mike Slive.
Among the Crimson Tide's honorees, four carried a perfect 4.0 grade point average through their freshman season at the Capstone. Leigh Alexander of Shreveport, La. and Allison Delisle of Huntsville (soccer) and Nathalie Koppelle of Zoetermeer, Holland (women's tennis) and Vlad Polyakov of Moscow, Russia (men's swimming and diving). Polyakov finished second in the 200 breaststroke at the NCAA Championships last season while Koppelle helped lead the Crimson Tide tennis team to its first SEC West title.
Seventeen freshmen on the academic honor roll earned Dean's List honors for the year, carrying GPAs between 3.5 and 3.99. For the women's programs, those athletes included: Meghan Bates (Tullahoma, Tenn.), Beth Mallory (Ashland, Ohio), Nicole Abram (Gotha, Germany) and Aymara Albury (Nassau, Bahamas), from track and field; Mari Bayer (San Jose, Calif.), Rachel Delahoussaye (Mandeville, La.) and Dana Pierce (Advance, Ind.) from gymnastics; Ashley Bentley (Montgomery), Natalie McElveen (Birmingham) and Melissa Minor (Vestavia Hills) tennis; Courtney Cockrill (Austin, Texas) from soccer; Leah Drury (Greensboro) and Katherine Mastin (Boaz) women's basketball; Crystal Rasmussen (Odessa, Fla.) swimming and diving team; Carina Sorensen (Norrahamar, Sweden) from golf.
For the men, DeMeco Ryans (Bessemer) from football and Apostolos Tsagkarakis (Athens, Greece) from swimming and diving, both carried GPAs between 3.5 and 3.99.
Sixteen freshmen on the academic honor roll had GPAs between 3.49 and 3.0, including: Lindsay Caton (Cincinnati, Oh.), Sara Haight (East Peoria, Ill.) and Libby Probst (Salt Lake City, Utah) from the soccer team; Charlie Coleman (Vestavia Hills) and Peter Etoot (Nakuru, Kenya) from track and field; Matthew Drummond (Jasper) from tennis; Darren Erasmus (Spring, Texas) and J.T. Jones (Madison, Miss.) from swimming and diving; Kathryn Hallquist (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.), Alison Lafevers (Americus, Ga.) and Candace Weiman (Castro Valley, Calif.) from swimming and diving; Lauren Hill (New Orleans, La.) and Dee Merriweather (Hanceville) from basketball; Emily Green (Scottsboro) from track and field; Stephanie VanBrakle (Chambersburg, Penn.) from softball; Kyle Tatum (Prattville) from football.
Alabama's 37 honors ranked in the top-third of the conference and was second in the SEC Western division.
