College of the Ozarks Teams and Athletes Achieve NAIA Academic Awards

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced its Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athletes and NAIA Scholar Teams as a part of its annual NAIA National Awards Day on Tuesday. The day recognizes the association's highest individual honors and achievements of NAIA student-athletes, administrators, and coaches.

The Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete program recognizes academic excellence by NAIA-member student-athletes who are juniors or seniors in academic standing with a 3.5 cumulative GPA. The awards are given annually to outstanding student-athletes in the various sports which their institution is active and is eligible for post season participation.

The NAIA Scholar Team Award recognizes academic excellence by NAIA teams. Teams must achieve a minimum grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale and include the academic standing of all eligible varsity athletes for both fall and spring semesters.

The College of the Ozarks is well represented on both lists, as eight teams and 20 individual athletes garnered recognition.

Achieving Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete recognition of the Bobcats and Lady Cats were:
 
Sean Neal – Baseball
Bethany Marteney - Women's Cross Country
Hannah Duncan - Women's Cross Country
Garrett Pierce - Men's Cross Country
Samuel Baumer - Men's Cross Country
Kyle Kapella - Men's Track and Field
Mason Cockrum - Men's Track and Field
Noah Kunce - Men's Track and Field
Trey Gibson - Men's Basketball
Ashley Forrest - Women's Basketball
Jordan Wersinger - Women's Basketball
Shayla Latture - Volleyball
Haley Stallings - Volleyball
Kaylee Larimer - Volleyball
Margaret Plake - Volleyball
Reilly Wallace - Volleyball
Ryley Thixton - Volleyball
Marcos Devoto - Men's Golf
Stuart Jacobs - Men's Golf
Caleb Davis - Men's Golf

NAIA Scholar Teams for C of O include: Men’s Track and Field, Women’s Track and Field, Men’s Golf, Women’s Golf, Men’s Cross Country, Women’s Cross Country,  Women’s Basketball, and Volleyball.

Congratulations to these teams and athletes as they excel in competition as well as in the classroom.