SOU winter sports produce eight Academic All-Stars

Ashland Daily Tidings

Impressive individual performances inside and outside the classroom by members of the 2001-02 Southern Oregon University basketball and wrestling teams landed a windfall of postseason accolades.

Four Raider basketball standouts (Hamilton Barnes, Matt Zosel, T.J. Caughell and Melissa Core) garnered NAIA Academic All-American status, and two others (Jeff Tacheny and Sara Marks) earned honorable mention All-American kudos. Meanwhile, the SOU wrestling team boasted a school season record with four Academic All-Americans (Jason Chao, Chris Huntley, Mike Sills and Shannon Slover).

Barnes, a senior guard from Albany with a 3.76 grade point average in health promotion/physical education, Caughell, a junior guard from Reedsport with a 3.81 in physical education, and Zosel, a senior from Coos Bay with 3.71 in history, helped the Southern Oregon men advance to the Cascade Conference tournament championship game after posting a sixth-place regular-season finish.

The trio - the most Academic All-Americans ever on the same team in school and league history - keyed a late-season surge that allowed SOU to bounce back from a 4-10 start for a 15-16 final record.

Tacheny, a 6-foot-6 center from Clackamas, became the school's fifth honorable mention All American since 1990 after leading the team and ranking 15th in the conference for scoring (13.6), including a 21.5 clip over the final six contests.

Core, a senior forward from Cave Junction with a 3.58 GPA in English, capped her stellar career second on the school's all-time list for free throw percentage (.798), third for 3-point makes (114) and ninth for scoring (1,073).

Marks landed first-team Little All-Northwest honors and honorable mention All-American status after leading the league in conference-games-only scoring average (19.4). The 5-foot-5 Eastern Utah JC transfer is only the fourth SOU women's player ever to score 500 or more points in a season (515).

Sills, who advanced to the 197-pound NAIA championship bout, and Slover, the fifth-place finisher at 149, are only the second and third Raider wrestlers ever to earn national academic all-star and All-American status during the same season.

Sills, a junior from Tigard with a 3.70 GPA in psychology, Huntley, a junior from Coquille with a 3.54 in business administration, Slover, a junior from Irrigon with a 3.50 in business, and Chao, a senior from Las Vegas with a 3.55 in English, helped the SOU wrestling squad extend its consecutive winning season streak to 32 straight.

Southern Oregon, which placed third at the national tournament, boasted the most Academic All Americans among 22 participating teams this season.

National academic all-star recipients must maintain at least a 3.5 GPA as well as serve as key performers.