ATH: Spring Commencement Sees More Than 100 Ohio State Student-Athletes Earn Degrees – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | General
Malcolm Jenkins and Becky Kim are among the university’s largest graduating class
COLUMBUS, Ohio More than 100 current and former Ohio State student-athletes, 107 to be exact, received their degrees at The Ohio State University spring quarter commencement ceremonies in Ohio Stadium Sunday. Highlighting the graduates this quarter are multiple national and Big Ten champions, a handful of All-Americans and a U.S. Olympian.
In the graduating class are football standouts Malcolm Jenkins and Tyson Gentry, members of Ohio State’s four-consecutive Big Ten Champion teams. Jenkins won the Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back and earned All-America honors in 2008. The cornerback was the first Buckeye taken at No. 14 overall by the New Orleans Saints in the 2009 NFL Draft.
Gentry was honored this spring with multiple postgraduate scholarships, receiving the Corwin A. Fergus Memorial Award, the Men’s Varsity O Scholarship and the A.K. and Judith A. Pierce Phoenix Award to continue his education at Ohio State.
Making a splash in 2009 were Jayme DeLancy and Becky Kim, both of whom helped the Ohio State synchronized swimming team to a historical season. The duo helped the squad capture the U.S. Collegiate and U.S. Senior National Championships as seniors. Kim, a 2008 U.S. Olympian, was named the U.S. Synchronized Swimming Collegiate Athlete of the Year after returning from injury to win the national duet title with teammate Meghan Kinney.
Fencer Mike Momtselidze, 2008 NCAA runner-up in the sabre, graduates as a two-time All-American and member of the 2008 squad that captured the NCAA title at home in French Field House.
Field hockey standout Linda Haussener, Ohio State’s 2009 Female Big Ten Medal of Honor winner, graduates this spring with her name throughout the Buckeye record books. She concluded her career as a three-time National Field Hockey Coaches Association All-American, including a first-team nod as a senior. The 2009 Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Year, Haussener led the Big Ten in scoring as a senior and ended her career fifth in program history with 121 points. A double-major in political science and economics, Haussener was a three-time NFHCA National Scholar Athlete and Academic All-Big Ten.
Ashlee Trebilcock, a guard for the women’s basketball team, helped the Buckeyes to three of the team’s five-consecutive Big Ten championships in her time at Ohio State. This past season, Trebilcock and the Scarlet and Gray advanced to the team’s first Sweet 16 appearance since 2005 before bowing out to No. 2 seed and Final Four-bound Stanford.
Jake Bateman, a native of Kingsport, Tenn., ended his career as a two-time All-American gymnast, as well as a two-time CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American. A biology major, he earned an NCAA post-graduate scholarship and will attend dental school at the University of Tennessee in 2010. The 2006 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Bateman was a two-time captain and helped Ohio State to two Big Ten titles.
Also graduating as an Academic All-American is women’s hockey goaltender Liana Bonanno with a degree in physics. A two-time CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine First Team Academic All-District IV selection, Bonanno has been honored three times by the Ohio State Physics Department for her achievements: the Helen Cowan Book Award (freshman year), Smith Sophomore Award and Tom and Bunny Clark Scholarship (junior year) and is a member of the Honors Collegium in Ohio State’s Honors and Scholars program.
In her second-consecutive appearance at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics championships, Kaylan Clevinger was named a second-team All-American on bars in April 2008. As a senior, Clevinger posted a near-perfect 9.90 on bars at the national championships to become the fifth Buckeye gymnast to claim All-American honors and the first since Lindsey Vagedes in 1999. Gymnast Alyssa Meyer, who finished her athletic campaign in 2009, also is graduating with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She received the Corwin A. Fergus Memorial and M/I Homes Foundation postgraduate scholarships at the Scholar-Athlete banquet in May.
Senior Patrick Woods won the 2009 Big Ten title in the decathlon to help the Ohio State men’s track and field team to a second-place conference finish, its best since 2001, at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium last May. The home crowd witnessed a personal-best performance from Woods in the final home meet of his career, as he totaled 7405 points, the second-best score in school history.
In 2005, Griet Buelens, who finished her athletic career this past season, won the Big Ten title in the 200-yard butterfly to become Ohio State’s first swimming Big Ten champion since Jocelyn Jay won the 500-yard freestyle and the 400-yard individual medley in 1995. The first-team All-Big Ten star from Kapelle, Belgium swam the fastest time in Ohio State history, clocking in at 1:59.09 to earn the title.
A link to the complete list of the 2009 spring quarter graduates is above.
