Centralight

Sports • cmuchippewas.com the grade Making More than 100 student-athletes were honored at the 20th Annual Academic Excellence Banquet. The winners of several team and individual awards were announced at the spring semester banquet. Seniors Brian Bennyhoff of football and Bethany Allport of women's soccer were named the first recipients of the newly-created Pat Podoll Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. Bethany Allport and Brian Bennyhoff received the Pat Podoll Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement from Pat Podoll, center. The award, named after longtime athletics department director of academics Pat Podoll, will become an annual award to recognize the graduating senior male and female student-athletes with the highest cumulative GPAs. Only those who have been a member of an athletic team and attended CMU for their entire collegiate career will be eligible for the award. With a cumulative GPA of 3.7, the highest in the country for the seventh consecutive year, the women's soccer team was awarded the Outstanding Team GPA award among women's sports, while the men's Outstanding Team GPA award went to the baseball team. The gymnastics team earned the Dick Enberg Team Award based on its commitment to academics and community service. In addition to an outstanding season in which it earned its third consecutive Mid-American Conference regular-season and tournament championships, the team maintained a 3.46 GPA and was active in the Mount Pleasant community. Highlighting the academic year, 48 current and former student- athletes earned their CMU degrees on May 5. CMU student-athletes who were recently honored at the 20th Annual Academic Excellence Banquet. Forty-three current and former student-athletes earned bachelor's degrees, four earned their master's degree and one completed her doctorate. • Marcy Weston Success coach Executive Associate Director of Athletics Marcy Weston recently was honored with the 2012 Distinguished Woman in Higher Education Leadership Award from the Michigan American Council on Education Network for Women Leaders in Higher Education. "I am humbled and extremely honored to receive the prestigious award from the Michigan ACE," Weston said. She also was honored as CMU's Woman of the Year. Weston was recognized for the role she has played in the advancement of women's collegiate athletics during her 40 years as an official, coach and administrator at the collegiate level. A 2000 inductee into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, Weston – in 1991 – was recognized by the NCAA as one of nine major contributors to the first decade (1981-91) of NCAA women's basketball. Weston's coaching career included time as head coach of the field hockey, volleyball and women's basketball programs at CMU. She was inducted into the CMU hall of fame, which now bears her name, in 2004. • centralight summer '12 33

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