Seven @RazorbackGym Athletes Named to SEC Winter Academic Honor Roll

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – On Thursday, the Southeastern Conference announced its 2014-15 Winter Academic Honor Roll and the University of Arkansas women’s gymnastics team had seven representatives on the list.

It is the second-straight season that the Razorback gymnastic progaram placed seven athletes on the SEC Winter Academic Honor Roll, as seniors Stephani Canizaro and Cailee Ellsworth, juniors Sydnie Dillard, Heather Elswick and Erin Freier and sophomores Samantha Nelson and All-American Amanda Wellick. It is a team-best third selection to the SEC Winter Honor Roll for Canizaro, while Dillard, Elswick and Freier earn their second selection. This year’s spot on the SEC Winter Honor Roll is the first for Ellsworth, Nelson and Wellick. Nelson and Wellick each represented Arkansas on the SEC Academic All-Freshman team last year.

The 2014-15 Winter SEC Academic Honor Roll is based on grades from the 2014 Spring, Summer and Fall terms.

Any student-athlete who participates in a Southeastern Conference championship sport or a student-athlete who participates in a sport listed on his/her institution’s NCAA Sports Sponsorship Form is eligible for nomination to the Academic Honor Roll. The following criteria should be followed: (1) A student-athlete must have a grade point average of 3.00 or above for either the preceding academic year (two semesters or three quarters) or have a cumulative grade point average of 3.00 or above at the nominating institution. (2) If a student-athlete attends summer school, his/her grade point average during the summer academic term must be included in the calculation used to determine eligibility for the Academic Honor Roll. (3) Student-athletes eligible for the Honor Roll include those receiving an athletics scholarship, recipients of an athletics award (i.e., letter winner), and non-scholarship student-athletes who have been on a varsity team for two seasons. (4) Prior to being nominated, a student-athlete must have successfully completed 24 semester or 36 quarter hours of non-remedial academic credit toward a baccalaureate degree at the nominating institution. (5) The student-athlete must have been a member of a varsity team for the sport’s entire NCAA Championship segment.

Arkansas ended its season back on April 4 with a fourth-place finish at the 2015 NCAA Morgantown Regional. The 2015 season saw the program set the highest floor exercise score in program history, with a 49.600 to upset perennial power Alabama, and had just its second gymnast named to a National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women (NACGC) Regular-Season All-America, as sophomore Amanda Wellick earned Second-Team Regular-Season All-American honors on the vault. Freshman Paige Zaziski also burst onto the scene in 2015, as she became just the second Razorback gymnast to win the SEC Freshman of the Year honors, and she set a pair of program record by winning the SEC Freshman of the Week honors three times, and tied the program’s best mark on the uneven bars with her 9.950 in the regular season finale against No. 8 UCLA.

For more information on the Arkansas women’s gymnastics team, follow @RazorbackGym on Twitter.