Bringing you news and notes coming from the Sun Belt Conference in women's sports from both the athletic field and in the classroom as soon as news breaks. For a specific sport please see that specific page.
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Two women athletes with Sun Belt Conference ties take home a Gold Medal
Melissa Jefferson (Coastal Carolina ’22) was featured in Team USA’s women’s 4x100m Relay that stood atop the podium.
Jefferson also earned a bronze medal in the women’s 100m.
Marie Reichert from Old Dominion earned a gold medal for Germany in the women’s 3x3 Basketball event.
Director of James Madison Track & Field Delethea Quarles aided Team USA by coaching the jumps and multis. Under her leadership, the United States tallied a gold medal and a pair of bronzes in jumping events. Team USA secured gold and bronze in the women’s long jump and a bronze medal in the triple jump.
The Sun Belt Conference was also represented by five additional women athletes who competed in Paris.
Camryn Newton-Smith, Heptathlon – Australia (‘23 Arkansas State)
19th – 5,982 points. Highlighted by a seventh place finish in the high jump that brought her total inside the top ten.
Jackie Benitez, Women’s Basketball – Puerto Rico (‘20 James Madison)
10th – Benitez played in all three games for Puerto Rico with a high of six points in a 58-55 loss to Serbia.
Ongeziwe Mali, Women’s Field Hockey – South Africa (‘20 James Madison)
11th – Mali totaled four shots in five matches with South Africa, including two in a 1-0 loss to the United States in pool play.
Stephanie Roble, Women’s Skiff – USA (’11 Old Dominion)
10th – Roble and her partner Maggie Shea advanced to the medal final, where they finished tenth with 20 race points for Team USA.
Anicka Newell, Women’s Pole Vault – Canada (‘15 Texas State)
Newell competed in Group B of the women’s pole vault competition, where she successfully cleared her first height of 4.20m on her first attempt. Down to her final attempt, Newell successfully cleared 4.40m. However, due to her two failed attempts at that height, she narrowly missed qualifying for the finals.
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The Sun Belt Conference has nominated Simone Timm (Georgia Southern women’s soccer) and Abby Herring (Marshall cross country and track & field) for the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award was established in 1991 and honors the academic achievements, athletic excellence, community service and leadership of graduating female student-athletes.
“Simone and Abby are All-Sun Belt student-athletes who have balanced rigorous schedules training for their sports and their chosen professions, while also serving their local communities. We’re thrilled to nominate these model Sun Belt student-athletes for this prestigious honor,” said Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Keith Gill.
Timm and Herring will be forwarded to the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee. It will choose the Top 30 honorees—10 from each division—and then select the nine finalists—three from each division—from those Top 30 honorees, before naming the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year this fall.
Timm paced Georgia Southern with 21 points—on eight goals and five assists—in 2023, as the Eagles tallied a 12-6-1 record. The 12 wins were the third-most in program history, trailing only the 1996 (13-8) and 2000 (14-5) Georgia Southern clubs. The Toronto, Ontario, Canada, native was an All-Sun Belt First Team honoree in 2023, while earning CSC Academic All-District recognition in 2022 and 2023. Timm was a two-time Sun Belt Commissioner’s List honoree (2020-21 and 2021-22) and a one-time Sun Belt Academic Honor Roll recipient (2022-23).
Timm graduated from Georgia Southern with a degree in nursing, maintaining a 4.00 GPA while balancing a rigorous academic and collegiate athletic schedule. In addition to completing over 300 hours of clinical training toward her nursing degree—ranging from adult intensive care to emergency room to hospice—Timm volunteered at the Statesboro Family YMCA Heart Run, Statesboro First United Methodist Church and The Lodge at Bethany during her time in Statesboro.
Herring became the first woman in Marshall cross country history to qualify for the NCAA Women’s Cross Country Championship in 2023, capping a career that included seven All-Conference nods across three sports. The Parkersburg, W.Va., native was an All-Sun Belt First Team honoree in cross country in 2022 and 2023, while earning Second Team (2021) and Third Team (2020) nods from Conference USA. Herring also earned All-Sun Belt First Team recognition in indoor & outdoor track & field in the 5K in 2024 and was a Sun Belt Commissioner’s List (2022-23), Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll (2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22) and Conference USA Academic Medal (2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22) recipient.
Herring graduated from Marshall with a degree in elementary education, maintaining a 3.81 GPA while competing in three sports. In addition to completing over 750 hours of student teaching toward her elementary education degree, Herring volunteered with the Marshall University HELP Program, River Valley Child Development Services and Country Roads Running Camp during her time in Huntington.
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11 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Volleyball programs earn the AVCA Team Academic Award sponsored by INTENT .
Each volleyball program was required to maintain a year-long grade-point average of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale (or 4.1 on a 5.0 scale) during the recently completed academic year.
The additional distinction of Team Academic Honor Roll celebrates programs in the top 20% of GPAs for their division. Coastal Carolina received this distinction to represent the league.
Coastal Carolina was joined by App State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, James Madison, Marshall, Old Dominion, Southern Miss, Texas State and Troy in receiving the overall team award.
2024 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Volleyball AVCA Team Academic Awards
App State
Coastal Carolina, Team Academic Honor Roll
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
James Madison
Marshall
Old Dominion
South Alabama
Southern Miss
Texas State
Troy
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Texas State’s Elisabet Runarsdottir named to the 2023-4 Academic All-America® Team for Women’s Track & Field/ Cross Country as selected by the College Sports Communicators.
Runarsdottir, the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Women’s Field Performer of the Year and champion in the women’s hammer throw, earned Second Team Academic All-America honors with a 3.69 GPA.
At the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Runarsdottir became the first Bobcat to win a national title in the hammer throw, and the first individual national champion in 28 years for the program.
She captured the title with a personal-best mark of 70.47m/231-2. The mark also bested her previous Icelandic National record. At the Icelandic U23 Championships, Runarsdottir again claimed gold in the hammer throw with a mark of 67.57m.
Sun Belts Looks To Make Two Straight Years in the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge
A scheduling alliance women’s basketball, the MAC-SBC Challenge enters its second season and will tip off during the opening week of the 2024-25 campaign on Monday, November 4th
The second MAC-SBC Challenge contest for each team will be announced in January before tipping off in early February. The Sun Belt women will host the February matchups, as each MAC and Sun Belt team included in the MAC-SBC Challenge is guaranteed one home and one away game each season.
The Sun Belt captured the inaugural women's winning 14 of the 24 games, which included nine during the November 2023
Sun Belt champion Marshall will travel to MAC regular season champion Toledo, as SBC Championship runner-up James Madison visits reigning MAC tournament champion Kent State.
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Sun Belt Conference programs continue to excel in the classroom according to the latest NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) data release by the NCAA national office.
In conference-sponsored sports, the Sun Belt posted an overall APR score of 980 with 36 programs earning perfect scores of 1,000 from data submitted for the 2019-20 through 2022-23 academic years. The overall APR marks a two-point improvement over last year’s report.
Marshall led all member schools with four programs recording perfect scores, including women’s cross country, women’s golf, women’s swimming & diving and women’s tennis. App State, Arkansas State, Georgia State, James Madison, Old Dominion and Troy each had three programs post perfect marks, respectively.
Sun Belt women’s golf and women’s swimming & diving programs tied for the highest single-sport APR (997), as nine of the 13 women’s golf teams recorded perfect scores, including Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, James Madison, ULM, Marshall, Old Dominion, South Alabama, Texas State and Troy.
The APR, created to provide a real-time measurement of academic success rather than the six-year delay with graduation rates, is a team-based metric in which scholarship student-athletes earn one point for each term in which they remain academically eligible and one point for returning to school or graduating. Schools that do not offer athletics aid track the eligibility and retention of their recruited student-athletes within their APR cohorts.
Every Division I athletics program submits data to the NCAA as part of the Academic Progress Rate calculation. The NCAA reports both single-year and four-year rates. National aggregates are based on all teams with usable, member-provided data
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Ten Sun Belt Conference women student-athletes in the sports of women’s golf and beach volleyball have earned Academic All-District At-Large recognition from College Sports Communicators.
The 2024 Academic All-District® Women's At-Large teams, selected by College Sports Communicators, recognize the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances in competition and in the classroom. To be eligible, student-athletes must possess at least a 3.50 cumulative grade-point average, and graduate students must have at least a 3.50 in both degree programs.
Georgia Southern women’s golfers Abby Newton and Haley Yerxa and Georgia State beach volleyball student-athletes Angel Ferary and Bella Ferary were selected as CSC Academic All-America® finalists and advance to the national ballot to be voted on by CSC members. First-, second- and third-team Academic All-America® honorees will be announced Tuesday, July 16.
Sun Belt women’s golf student-athletes placed with six. Georgia Southern Eagles led the way with two on the women’s side. While Georgia State placed four student-athletes on the Volleyball squad
2024 Sun Belt Women’s Golf Academic All-District Selections
Jacquelyn Taylor, App State
Olivia Coit, Arkansas State
Abby Newton*, Georgia Southern
Haley Yerxa*, Georgia Southern
Carley Rudolf, Old Dominion
Amelia Williams, James Madison
2024 Sun Belt Beach Volleyball Academic All-District Selections
Angel Ferary*, Georgia State
Bella Ferary*, Georgia State
Lila Bordis, Georgia State
Ayla Johnson, Georgia State