BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Twenty-two WKU student-athletes, sporting a cumulative grade point average of 3.22, are expected to participate in commencement ceremonies and receive their degrees from Western Kentucky University on Saturday.
Three of the 22 student-athletes will be receiving their master's degrees while 19 others are graduating for the first time. Degrees obtained include economics, physics, recreation and sport administration, sport management, systems management, applied data analytics, mathematics, psychology, exercise science, management, nursing, physical education, and visual arts.
In the past year, WKU Athletics posted the program's highest graduation success rate, as reported by the NCAA, with a score of 85. It was a three-point improvement over the previous year's already high score of 82, and it represented the second largest year-to-year leap since the report began in 1998.
Four WKU sport programs posted perfect GSR scores and all four have at least one student-athlete participating in this week's commencement ceremonies: women's basketball, women's soccer, women's tennis, and women's volleyball.
Over the 2018 calendar year, 86 student-athletes have earned their degrees from the institution and have combined for an overall grade point average of 3.21. Among those completing their undergraduate coursework, baseball's Devon Loomis headlines the Hilltopper graduates with a 3.72 cumulative GPA in Physics while soccer's Annie-Marie Ulliac's 3.83 in Psychology is the Lady Topper high mark.
Baseball
Paul Kirkpatrick (Austin, Texas), Economics
Devon Loomis (Colfax, Calif.), Physics
Michael Martin (San Diego, Calif.), Recreation and Sport Administration (Master's)
Football
Dylan Ferguson (Mount Washington, Ky), Sport Management
Jaylon George (Atlanta, Ga.), System Management
Joel German (Fort Myers, Fla.), Recreation and Sport Administration (Master's)
Hunter Holland (Buford, Ga.), Management
Devin Nixon (Melbourne, Fla.), Sport Management
Ryan Nuss (Fairfield, Ohio), Applied Data Analytics
Cullen Reynolds (Madisonville, Ky.), Management
Evan Sayner (Paducah, Ky.), Organizational Leadership
R.J. Scaife (Dade City, Fla.), Management
Heath Wiggins (Mayfield, Ky.), Interdisciplinary Studies
Track and Field
Peter Agaba, Mathematics (Master's)
Eli Minor (Inkster, Mich.), Interdisciplinary Studies
Women's Basketball
Ivy Brown (Hodgenville. Ky.), Physical Education
Women's Soccer
Shayna Dheel (Plainfield, Ill.), Visual Arts
Anne-Marie Ulliac (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), Psychology
Softball
Shelby Maggard (Elizabethtown, Ky.), Nursing
Women's Tennis
Cassie Pennington (Bowling Green, Ky.), Management
Violetta Shatalova (Minsk, Belarus), Exercise Science
Women's Volleyball
Rachel Anderson (Sturgis, Mich.), Sport Management
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