Softball excels in the classroom
St. Louis- The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) has announced the 2015-16 All-Academic teams and Scholar-Athlete award winners. Fontbonne University's 2016 Softball squad was ranked second out of 92 NCAA Division III teams. It's the highest ranking for Fontbonne since they took the top spot from the 2012 season. The Griffins were first among St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Teams represented with a 3.662 team GPA and fell behind No. 1-ranked Newbury College who recorded a 3.770 team GPA. The SLIAC was represented with five scholar teams. Fontbonne and Iowa Wesleyan each carried 10 Scholar Athletes with Webster and Westminster garnering nine.
Student-athletes who achieved a 3.5 or better GPA on a 4.0 scale for the 2015-16 academic year were recognized as NFCA Scholar-Athletes. The SLIAC had 50 student-athletes named Scholar Athletes. Ten Griffins were named to the NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete Team including Michelle Boyer (Sports Management), Maddie Cooksey (Biology), Isabel Hotop (Dietetics), Sarah Kitchen (Special Education), Courtney Kraus (Applied Design), Alleigh Kruse (Applied Math), Melanie Russo (Pre-Law), Lindsay Schaefer (Psychology), Emily Smith (Social Work) and Kayla Winkler (Speech-Language Pathology).
Fontbonne University softball was named regular season SLIAC Champions each of the last six years under head coach Bill Rosner and associate head coach Mike Akers. It is the mission of Fontbonne Athletics to excel off the field as well as on the field.
NCAA Division III Top 10 Teams
1. Newbury College – 3.770; 2. Fontbonne University– 3.662; 3. Whitworth University – 3.620; 4. University of Dubuque - 3.551; 5. Smith College – 3.545; Springfield College – 3.538; 7. Union College – 3.518; 8. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse – 3.517; 9. Illinois Wesleyan University – 3.511; 10. Iowa Wesleyan University – 3.509.