By: Marla Glasser, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications
Louisville, Ky. – The National Fastpitch Coaches Association has recognized nine members of the Fighting Illini softball program as All-America Scholar Athletes for the 2012-13 academic year. Student-athletes who maintained a grade point average of 3.5 or higher for the full year qualified for the individual honor. Of the nine Illini who earned the honor, five were first-year players, to go along with one sophomore, two juniors and one senior.
The student-athletes who were named 2013 NFCA All-America Scholar Athletes are Allie Bauch, Alex Booker, Stephanie Cuevas, Kylie Johnson, Jenna Mychko, Katie Repole, Jami Schkade, Jade Smith and Dana Sullivan. Booker and Schkade were both named to the 2013 Big Ten All-Defensive team, while Booker was also Second-Team All-Big Ten. Mychko earned the 2013 Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. All four non-rookies were also named 2013 Academic All-Big Ten, while Booker was a 2013 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar.
Illinois is one of five Big Ten programs to garner Scholar Athlete honors, tying with Northwestern for the most honorees, at nine. Ohio State had four Scholar Athletes, Indiana had three and Wisconsin had two honorees.
As a team, the Illini finished just outside the top 50 with a collective GPA of 3.31. The Orange and Blue finished second in the conference in team GPA, sitting just behind Northwestern (3.33), who ranked 48th nationally.
The Fighting Illini wrapped up their fall season on Sept. 27-29 with games against Parkland, Heartland and DePaul, as well as their annual Alumni Game. Illinois begins spring play on Feb. 7 at the UIC/Loyola Tournament in Rosemont, Ill.
