The annual Scholar-Athlete Reception was held on February 22nd, before the Rice men’s basketball game against UCF. The reception, sponsored by the R Association, is meant to honor Rice’s scholar and honor athletes during halftime at the basketball game.
Rice Sport Management major Jordan Meredith was the award recipient for the Scholar Athlete from the volleyball team. The scholar athlete award is given to a member of each athletic team at Rice showing excellence not only on the field, but in the classroom as well.
“Receiving the Scholar Athlete Award will definitely be the award that is most meaningful to me over the course of my time as a college athlete,” Meredith said. “Rice University and the athletic department have played a major role in my achievements in and out of the classroom and I am deeply thankful for that academic mindset that helped me to achieve the Scholar Athlete Award.”
Meredith recently accepted a job in the marketing department at Methodist Hospital following graduation from Rice.
The Rice Sport Management program produced many other honor athletes at this year’s Scholar-Athlete Reception. An honor athlete must maintain above a 3.3 GPA to be considered at the award reception. Honor athletes that were recognized were Anthony Fazio, Matthew Reckling, and Tyler Spurlin from baseball; Justin Allen, Klein Kubiak, Stephen Noh, Paul Porras, and Tanner Shuck from football; Nathan Schwarze from men’s basketball; Michael Nuesslein from men’s tennis; Candace Ashford and Opal Taskila from women’s basketball; Daniella Trigo Beyer from women’s tennis; Alex Burton, Anne Kadota, and Victoria Rellas from the soccer team; Shelby Bottoms from swimming; and Laurie McNamara from the volleyball team.
There were also some other awards given out during the ceremony that involved Sport management majors. ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District VI awarded Michael Ratterree and Shelby Bottoms for their achievements. Nate Schwarze was placed on the National Association of Basketball Coaches Academic Honor Roll. Kramer Lucio was awarded by the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Hampshire Honor Society for his achievements in the classroom. Michael Whitehead was the recipient of the Golf Coaches Association of America All-American Scholar Award. Shelby Bottoms took home the award of College Swim Coaches Association of America Academic All-American. Daniella Trigo was awarded the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Women’s Scholar Athlete Award, and Michael Neusslein was awarded the same prize as the men’s Scholar Athlete.
Conference USA and the Commissioner’s Academic Medal were passed out to James Farrimond and Stephen Noh from football; Michael Nuesslein from tennis; Victoria Rellas from soccer; Carter Graves from swimming; and Laurie McNamara and Jordan Meredith from volleyball.
The Conference USA All-Academic Team featured the names of Laurie McNamara, Shelby Bottoms, and Michael Whitehead.
Taylor Wall, from Houston, Texas, is majoring in Sport Management.