NSU ON THE FALL COMMISSIONER'S LIST

NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State ranked second among the 12 Southland Conference member institutions with 79 student-athletes qualifying for the 2011 Southland Conference Commissioner's Fall Academic Honor Roll announced Thursday.
 
The 692-member list honored all eligible student-athletes who earned at least a 3.0 grade point average last semester while participating in the fall sports of football, men's and women's cross country, women's soccer and volleyball.  Only Central Arkansas, with 94 qualifiers, had more student-athletes listed than Northwestern.
 
Nine student-athletes with a 4.0 fall semester GPA headed NSU's roster on the honor roll.  Leading the Lady Demons back to the Southland Volleyball Tournament was sophomore Jessica Guttierrez, a Mandeville native who posted a perfect 4.0 GPA in general studies/pre-veterinarian. Three-year Academic All-Southland soccer standout Rachel O'Steen, a Wylie, Texas, product majoring in secondary education, also recorded a 4.0 while playing her senior season.
 
Other 4.0 student-athletes were Alex Hebert, a freshman cross country runner in business administration from Houma; Chris Lanier, a junior on the cross country team from Tarkington, Texas, majoring in biology and math; JaDerian Williams, a Ruston senior in general studies; freshman football linebacker Paxton Cook from Baton Rouge, a health and exercise science major; Tamara Hanna, a freshman biology major on the volleyball team from San Antonio, and women's cross country competitors Aly Coughlin, a freshman health and physical education major from Rockwall, Texas, and teammate Becca Meehan, a junior biology major from Shreveport.
 
Heading the other NSU student-athletes on the Southland honor roll were football seniors Justin Aldredge and Yaser Elqutub were elected Capital One Academic All-Americans and for the second straight year were named to the Football Championship Subdivision Athletic Director's Association Academic All-Star Team. Aldredge earned a 3.50 GPA in business administration and Elqutub carried a 3.33 GPA in scientific inquiry in the Louisiana Scholars' College at Northwestern for the fall semester as both graduated magna cum laude, with overall GPA's between 3.8-3.9,  in December.