NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State's spring sports athletes took a step forward in 2024, seeing an increase in their numbers on the Southland Conference Commissioner's Spring Honor Roll.
 
Released Tuesday morning by the conference office, the honor roll recognizes student-athletes who maintained a 3.0 grade point average or better during their season of competition. Of NSU's seven spring sports programs, four saw an increase in the percentage of their roster making the list while the NSU tennis program posted its fifth straight perfect season in that regard.
 
All seven tennis players were part of the honor roll, including four who posted perfect 4.0 grade point averages. In all, 40 NSU spring sports competitors hit the 4.0 number, led by 15 baseball players (31.3 percent of the team's roster). The 40 4.0 GPAs were the most for the department since the spring of 2021. Additionally, 24.85 percent of the department posted a grade point average between 3.5 and 3.99 – the highest percentage since at least 2018.
 
Overall, 114 NSU student-athletes were named to the honor roll, 11 more than a year ago. Those 114 made up 69.1 percent of all NSU's spring student-athletes, giving the department its highest percentage of honor roll members since posting a 69.7 percent mark in 2020.
 
While tennis remained steady at 100 percent, softball (plus-18.45 percent), men's track and field (plus-18.15 percent), baseball (plus-17.08 percent) and men's basketball (plus-9.05 percent) saw improvement.
 
Student-athletes who posted a 4.0 grade point average in the spring were baseball's J.C. Acosta, JD DiPrima, Caden Fiveash, Dawson Flowers, Cole Hill, Clay Jung, Hayden Knotts, Reese Lipoma, Alejandro Marquez, Aidan Newton, Tyler Nichol, Johnny Pecora, Colin Rains, James Starnes and Connor Wilson; women's basketball's Ivona Miljanic and Jiselle Woodson; softball's Tristin Court, Maggie Darr, Haley Parker, Kenzie Seely and Ashlyn Walker; tennis' Sara Erenda, Maria Farina, Ayi Ishibashi and Paige Wise; men's track and field's Diamante Gumbs, Djimon Gumbs, John Klein, Adam Lindo, Brian Norton, Tim Pelkmans, Korbin Shumate and Seth Smith, and women's track and field's Annemarie Broussard, Madison Brown, Sileena Farrell, Leah Thompson and Samantha Todaro.