Student-Athletes to Receive Degrees Sunday
8/5/2018 8:59:14 AM | General
COLUMBUS, Ohio – At Ohio State Summer Commencement Sunday, 29 current and former Ohio State student-athletes will receive their degrees. The ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Jerome Schottenstein Center and streamed online HERE.
The list of graduates includes Olympic and national champions, highlighted by wrestler Kyle Snyder, Chase Buchanan of the men’s tennis team, synchronized swimmer Monica Velazquez-Stiak and fencer Max Chastenet.
Snyder was the Olympic gold medalist (97kg) at the 2016 Rio Summer Games, the youngest Olympic and world champion in United States wrestling history. The 2017 and 2018 Big Ten Male Athlete of the Year, he lifted the Buckeyes to Big Ten titles in three of his four seasons (including 2018) and the squad won the 2015 NCAA team title, while he was a three-time NCAA champion. Snyder was the 2018 AAU Sullivan Award winner as the most outstanding amateur athlete in the U.S. and 2017 U.S. Olympic Male Athlete of the Year. He was also selected the Big Ten Medal of Honor recipient for Ohio State as the top senior student-athlete.
Velazquez-Stiak, a Big Ten Medal of Honor finalist, was a member of back-to-back team national championships in 2017 and ‘18. In 2018, she was the Individual High Point Award winner and won the duet free title, earning All-America honors, with Ohio State also winning the national title for its team routine.
Buchanan, a Buckeye from 2009-12, took part in the degree completion plan. The 2010 and ’11 Big Ten Athlete of the Year, he and Blaz Rola won the 2012 NCAA Doubles Championship, the first NCAA title in program history. A three-time All-Big Ten selection and an All-American, he played professionally and was ranked as high as No. 158 in the world in singles (2014) and No. 151 in the world in doubles (2015).
Chastenet won the 2016 NCAA foil title and tied for third at the 2017 NCAA Championships.
The 29 summer graduates join 238 current and former student-athletes who earned their Ohio State degree at fall and spring commencement ceremonies in 2017-18. A record 692 Buckeyes were recognized at the annual Scholar-Athlete Dinner in April, while Ohio State had a record 489 Academic All-Big Ten selections and 129 Big Ten Distinguished Scholars. In all, 34 sports ended the year with a grade-point average of 3.0 or better.
| SPORT | NAME | ACADEMIC PLAN |
|---|---|---|
| Baseball | Bo Coolen | Sport Industry |
| MBB | Matthew Lehmann | Sport Industry |
| FB | Kyle Berger | Exercise Science |
| FB | Christopher Carter | Communication |
| FB | Jashon Cornell | Family Resource Management |
| FB | Jordan Leasure | Sport Industry |
| FB | Sean Nuernberger | Computer & Information Science |
| FB | Robert Rose | African-American and African Studies |
| FB | Curtis Terry | African-American and African Studies |
| FENCE | Max Chastenet | Marketing |
| FENCE | Morgan Mzhen | Criminology |
| FENCE | Stanislav Sudilovsky | Earth Science |
| FENCE | Lewis Weiss | International Studies |
| MHKY | Luke Stork | Sport Industry |
| MLAX | Henry Bethke | Economics |
| MSOC | Marcus McCrary | History |
| MTEN | Chase Buchanan | Communication |
| MVB | Maxime Hervoir | Communication |
| WREST | Cody Allen Burcher | Sport Industry |
| WREST | Kyle Snyder | Sport Industry |
| WBB | Stephanie Mavunga | Kinesiology (Master's) |
| ROW | Cassandra Johnson | Communication |
| WGYM | Taylor Harrison | Communication |
| WGYM | Alexis Mattern | Sport Industry |
| WSOC | Bryce Watts | Child and Youth Studies |
| WSWIM | Kathleen Cook | Animal Sciences |
| SYNCH | Monica Velazquez-Stiak | Sport Industry |
| PISTOL | Kara Moody | Speech and Hearing Science |
| PISTOL | Michael Soklaski | Molecular Genetics |
