IRVINE, Calif. – A whopping 147 student-athletes represented Concordia University Irvine on the 2018-19 Academic All-PacWest Team which was announced Tuesday by the conference.
For the second straight year, the largest number of student-athletes to earn recognition from a single PacWest team was the Concordia's women's track & field program. CUI garnered 37 award winners in that sport after seeing 34 members of the women's track & field team recognized the previous year.
To qualify, student-athletes achieved at least a cumulative 3.0 grade-point average, completed at least two semesters at their institution and participated in regular season competition in a PacWest sponsored sport.
Concordia biology major and distance runner
Savannah Neu was one of 37 PacWest student-athletes to compile a 4.0 GPA. She was one of 13 Concordia student-athletes to earn a GPA of 3.90 or higher.
Joining Neu in that rarified air are teammates
Madison Hergert (3.97),
Tamlyn Kurata (3.95) and
Danise Herrington (3.92), CUI softball player
Sarah Kretschmar (3.95), basketball players
Geoff Gerlach (3.95) and
Katie Timmerman (3.9), cross country runner
McKenna Wilson (3.93), hurdler
Chase Murphy (3.97), tennis player
Haley Diefenbach (3.92) and soccer players
Cienah Reed (3.93),
Megan Hussey (3.90) and
Jonathan Lawrence (3.90).
Six members of the CUI women's track and field team made the list twice after competing as members of the cross country squad as well. They were
Rosalba Cabrera,
Natalie Hakala,
Anamauri Hernandez,
Hannah Hopkins,
Katelyn Wilson and
Morgan Woodman. Half a dozen runners on the CUI men's cross country team also represented the Eagles as Academic All-PacWest selections on the men's track and field team. They were
Nathan Aguinaga,
Tyler Arnold,
Hector Arteaga,
Jayson Baker,
Jacob Dunagin and
Shawn Trejo. A total of 18 Eagles on the men's track and field team were named Academic All-PacWest.
The CUI women's soccer team had 15 student-athletes receive Academic All-PacWest recognition and the CUI baseball squad earned 14 selections. Nearly the entire CUI women's basketball team qualified for the list (nine) and the CUI softball team had 75 percent of its roster (18 of 24 players) make this year's Academic All-PacWest Team. The CUI women's volleyball and men's soccer teams were also well-represented with ten selections each. The two tennis squads combined to have 11 honorees while CUI men's basketball had a total of four led by Gerlach.
The entire 2018-19 Academic All-PacWest list included over 1,500 honorees. Biola led the league with the most selections while Concordia and Point Loma rounded out the top three.
11 of CUI's teams that play at the NCAA DII level compete in the PacWest Conference, while other teams on campus like men's volleyball, beach volleyball, STUNT, men's and women's swimming and diving and both water polo and lacrosse teams do not compete in the PacWest and are honored through different conferences and publications.
For the full list of both Concordia and PacWest student-athletes who were named to the 2018-19 Academic All-PacWest team, click here.
