The SoCon league office announced 443 student-athletes earned spots on the Fall 2023 Academic All-Southern Conference Team Jan. 25, 2024.
Each of the SoCon’s 10 full-member institutions had at least 26 honorees representing the sports of men’s and women’s cross country, football, men’s and women’s soccer, and volleyball.
At VMI, five football, four men’s cross country, seven men’s soccer, three women’s cross country, and seven women’s soccer cadet-athletes were named to the list. The complete VMI listing of qualifiers is found below.
To be eligible for the academic all-conference team, student-athletes must carry at least a 3.3 cumulative grade-point average at the conclusion of the fall semester and are required to compete in at least one-half of their teams’ competitions during the recently concluded campaign. In addition, the student-athletes must have successfully completed at least three semesters at their institutions, making true freshmen and first-year transfers ineligible for inclusion.
Complete SoCon Listing
Fall 2023 All-Academic Team
Thirty-six student-athletes have maintained perfect 4.0 cumulative GPAs, with Western Carolina leading the way with seven.
The league’s nine football teams led the way with 126 academic all-conference selections, while the 10 women’s soccer teams were second with 111 and the 10 women’s cross country programs were third with 61. The nine volleyball teams had 53 selections, the six men’s soccer teams had 50 selections, and the 10 men’s cross country teams followed with 42.
The 443 total selections are the most in SoCon history, and 36 perfect GPAs are the second-most selections. The record of 37 perfect GPAs was set in fall 2021.
VMI Honorees – Fall 2023 Academic All-SoCon
Football
Austin Doyle ’24
Collin Ironside ’24
Justin Peterson ’24
Will Reid ’24
Grant Swinehart ’24
Men’s Cross Country
Andrew Hirneisen ’24
Stephen Kelley ’24
Patrick Kiernan ’25
Brian Tavenner ’25
Women’s Cross Country
Nathalie Lavender ’26
Caroline Fiorillo ’25
Gretal Shank ’25
Men’s Soccer
Warner Collier ’24
Timofey Dovgalyuk ’26
Rider Holcomb ’26
Conor McGovern ’25
Drew Menges ’25
Cole Mooney ’25
Woongchan Oh ’25
Women’s Soccer
Sedona Dancu ’25
Audrey Davis ’25
Madison Hornig ’24
Katy Layman ’26
Delilah Martindale ’25
Amber Strapponi ’26
Hannah White ’24
Editor’s Note: This article was first published at vmikeydets.com.
