Wright State Cross Country | Photo provided by Victoria Angelopoulos
This year, Women’s Soccer received recognition for their 2019 play and Men and Women’s Cross Country received recognition for their outstanding academics during the season.
All-Academic recognition for Cross Country
The combined Men’s and Women’s Cross Country team received recognition for their academics during the 2019 fall season.
This award comes from the track and field and cross country coaches association aiming to recognize high team GPA’s in the region.
“It shows me that all of the hard work I’ve been doing is truly paying off,” said cross country runner Emma Carr. “I put a lot of work into my classes as well as my sport, so it’s nice to know that other people are noticing that.”
The raiders performed extremely well in academics all across the board.
According to Rick Williamson, Wright State’s cross country and track coach, the women had an average GPA around 3.7-3.8, which is pretty high.
“That’s pretty remarkable considering all the stuff they have to do,” said Williamson.
The men finished with a 3.2 team GPA overall. The men and women combined with a total of 19 athletes and a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Williamson explained that WSU goes out of its way to recruit athletes who perform well academically.
“If we can get a kid who has shown discipline in the classroom coming out of high school, we know they’re going to be coachable,” said Williamson. “We know in the offseason they are going to work hard and things like that. All of that stuff carries forward into their life as well.”
According to Williamson, the cross country program does a great job of accommodating practices for their students and building an environment that creates success.
“They do still get stressed, especially during exams, but they’re pretty good at balancing those things,” said Williamson. “We go out of our way if we know that a kid has a lot of stuff going on or if they have a really heavy week.”
Willimamson reiterated again how phenomenal the athletes were and how skilled they were at balancing their time; one of the key components to do so well.
“It’s just amazing that they are so disciplined; That’s the thing they are just so structured with their time,” said Williamson. “The thing that we always stress is that it’s not like their entire world revolves around academics and athletics, you know, they are involved in other things. They have social lives; It’s just they are really good about structuring their time.”
All-Ohio performers
Members of Wright State’s Women’s Soccer team were also recognized, this time for their play during the 2019 season.
“I think for me, this award made me want to work even harder,” said Johnson. “It also makes me appreciate my team even more too because without them this award wouldn’t have been given to me.”
Senior Jordyne Helinski and Junior Destiny Johnson both received the honor of being named to the All-Ohio Women’s NCAA Division I Second Team.
“Only so many women in NCAA Division I soccer are recognized for their performance and I was super surprised and even happier my teammate and I could have gotten it together,” said Helinski.
Helinski is grateful for her teammates and receiving the award was the cherry on top of an amazing season.
“Individually it meant a lot to me being a senior,” said Helinski. “I couldn’t thank my teammates and coaches, lifting coaches, administration and family more for helping along the way.”
Helinski is choosing to leave on a positive note. Although she will miss the excitement of competition, she will continue to be the soccer team’s number one supporter.
“I’ll cheer for them every moment of every game this fall,” said Helinski.
Johnson is looking forward to next season and thinks there is a lot of potential for the team to do well.
“I feel like we have a lot of work to do to accomplish our goals for the season but I don’t have any doubts that we can’t do it,” said Johnson. “Our effort is never questionable. We just are going to have to work hard because we have to fill the roles of the seniors from last season. I’m excited, I think we can have a great year.”
