Elon University Athletics

Each week during the academic year, the Academic Support Staff will recognize a student-athlete as the Academic All-Star of the Week.  This award is a way to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of student-athletes in the classroom.  This recognition may also include experiential learning such as unique internships and undergraduate research. 

May 6 • Bryn Khoury (Jr. • Women's Tennis)

Bryn Khoury is a junior majoring in economics and minoring in professional sales. Bryn is a Dean’s List student and was named to the Academic All-Conference team. She recently accepted an internship position at Credit Suisse, a leading international financial services company. She will serve as an Operations Analyst for the company this summer. This position was very competitive as her interview process began on Elon’s campus and then she was required to advance through three additional rounds before being selected.





April 29 • Janelle McNeil (Sr. • Track and Field)

Janelle McNeil is a senior, majoring in biology with a minor in neuroscience.  Janelle is a Dean’s List student and has been named to the SoCon Academic All-Conference Team in both indoor and outdoor track & field.  On SURF day, Janelle presented her undergraduate research on the Evaluation of Three Transfection Agents to Incorporate Green Fluorescent Protein into T Cells.  T cells are useful to study cell signaling and to determine the mechanism of how cancers interact with drugs and radiation.  Janelle will continue her interests in cancer and medicine next fall at the Medical Science program at Boston University.



April 22 • Charles Howard (Jr. • Men's Soccer)

Charles Howard is a junior majoring in sport and event management.  Charles is on track to exceed his highest-ever semester GPA at Elon.  He had a particularly strong beginning in the spring semester.  Charles will be completing his sport and event management internship this summer with Carolina Dynamo Futbol Club in Greensboro.  He will be helping the club with marketing and event management. 






April 15 • Ali Deatsch (Sr. • Volleyball)

Ali Deatsch was recently selected as a Southern Conference Postgraduate Scholarship winner.  As a physics major, Ali has excelled, being recognized by the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Research Program for outstanding work in STEM-related undergraduate research. She has presented research at the Biophysical Society’s annual meeting in each of the last two years and her abstract was recently presented at the Multifunctional Hybrid and Nanomaterials Conference in Sorrento, Italy. In 2011, Ali became the first Elon student-athlete to earn the university’s prestigious Lumen Prize for her research proposal entitled: Optimizing Heating Efficiency of Magnetic Microspheres for Magnetic Hyperthermia Treatment of Malignant Tumors. She is a member of the physics honor society, Sigma Pi Sigma and the Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Honor Society. Ali has a 3.72 grade point average and will continue her physics education at the postgraduate level.

March 18 • Celia Rose Eddy (Sr. • Volleyball)


March 11 • Ali Ford (Sr. • Women's Basketball and Softball)

Ali Ford is a senior majoring in sport and event management. Ali equaled her highest semester GPA in the Fall with a 3.6 Dean’s List performance.  Ali is a consistently great student, making the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll every semester at Elon.  Dr. Tony Weaver, sport and event management professor, says that “Ali approaches her academic work with the same type of dedication and passion she demonstrates while playing her sport.  She has a quest for learning that is hard to match.  I have had the pleasure of having Ali in several classes and she is always among the most committed.  She is well deserving of being an Academic All-Star.”  In addition to her strong classroom performance, Ali completed an internship with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever franchise over the summer where she was able to gain valuable experience in the operations of a professional sports team.

March 4 • Chelsea White (So. • Softball)

Chelsea White is a sophomore majoring in psychology. She received her highest semester GPA this past fall and has carried this success into the winter and spring semester. During the fall term her hard work especially paid off as she excelled in both her Spanish and Philosophy courses with A’s on several projects and exams. Chelsea’s Spanish class concluded with the successful presentation of a children’s book that she wrote entitled, “Mi Primero Juego” that depicted her childhood memories of her first ever softball game.





Feb. 25 • Blake Thompson (Sr. • Football)

Blake Thompson is a senior football player who will be graduating in May with a major in human service studies and a minor in psychology.  Blake was recently awarded an NCAA Ethnic Minority Enhancement Program Postgraduate Scholarship for Careers in Athletics.  He is currently completing an internship in the Academic Support for Athletics Office, and serves as a mentor for underclass student-athletes.  Blake is Vice President of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and spoke on behalf of Elon’s student-athletes at the Night of the Phoenix fundraising event in 2013. 




Feb. 18 • Christine Pacewicz (Sr. • Women's Cross Country/Track)

Christine Pacewicz is a senior cross-country and track athlete who will be graduating in May with a double major in exercise science and psychology, and minors in neuroscience and public health.  Christine currently has a 3.90 GPA and has earned a spot on the President’s List the past three semesters by achieving a perfect 4.0 GPA.  She is also conducting research with Dr. Barry Beedle that focuses on the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in male athletes.  After data collection, they hope to find trends in the risk factors that lead to the metabolic syndrome, which increases a person’s risk for heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.  Christine will be attending graduate school next year and will focus her studies on sport psychology.


Feb 11 • Egheosa Edomwonyi (Jr. • Men's Basketball)

Egheosa Edomwonyi is a junior majoring in Accounting.  Egheosa earned President’s List honors in the Fall with a perfect 4.0 GPA.  He continued his strong performance during Winter Term.  Egheosa’s accounting professor, Paula Weller, says that “Egheosa was a wonderful student. He was always prepared and up-to-date on all of his assignments. I know that there were times when he came to class with little sleep after being on the road for an away game. Amazingly, he always contributed to the class discussions. I have high hopes that Egheosa will continue his academic success and become a valuable member of the accounting profession.”



Jan. 21 • Raychel Diver (So. • Women's Soccer)

Raychel Diver is a sophomore majoring in sport and event management and minoring in coaching.  Raychel was recently selected to participate in the 2013 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program and will receive a stipend to carry out her research goals.  She will be working with Dr. Tony Weaver in providing insight into the need for a mentoring program aimed at girls' soccer players with low socio-economic backgrounds within Alamance County.  Ultimately, Raychel would like to create a mentor program which provides training within the sport of soccer, as well as enhancing youth development and life skills.



Jan. 14 • David Whitehead (Jr. • Baseball)

David Whitehead is a junior majoring in political science.  He equaled his highest semester GPA in the Fall with a 3.75 Dean’s List performance.  David is a consistently great student, and many professors comment on his preparation and participation in class.  He had a particularly strong end of the fall semester with A’s on several exams, papers, and presentations. 







Dec. 3 • Sam Coffer (So. • Women's Basketball)

Sam Coffer is a sophomore majoring in biochemistry.  She maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA throughout her freshman year and is continuing to excel this fall.  She had all A’s at midterm despite being enrolled in three difficult lab science courses.  In addition to her work in the classroom, she completed a practicum this summer where she was able to shadow doctors and begin to develop a plan for conducting her own undergraduate research.  







Nov. 26 - Stuart Kaufman (Jr. • Men's Golf)

Stuart Kaufman is a junior management major. He earned the highest GPA of his career last spring, making the Athletic Director's Honor Roll.  He is continuing to excel in the classroom this Fall with all A's at midterm.  Kaufman's hard work has shown throughout this semester as he received perfect scores on multiple exams. 








Nov. 12 - Matt Wescoe (Jr. • Men's Soccer)

Junior midfielder Matt Wescoe was named to the Capital One Academic All-District III first team as selected by the College of Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), based on his performance in 2012 both on the field and in the classroom.  Wescoe, a political science major, will have an opportunity to earn Academic All-America honors later this month with his first team selection. This was the first Academic All-District honor for Wescoe, who has a 3.53 cumulative grade point average.






Nov. 5 - Quinn Bower (So. • Baseball)

Quinn Bower is a sophomore majoring in Business and minoring in Spanish.  Quinn earned President’s List honors in each of his first two semesters at Elon.  He is continuing his strong performance this fall.  Quinn’s Spanish professor, Donna Van Bodegraven, says that “Quinn’s work is consistently among the best in my SPN 322 The Art of Written Expression class.  This class is a demanding writing course required of all Spanish majors and minors. During the class, students perfect their control of complicated Spanish syntax, improve their vocabulary usage and write challenging compositions of increasing length and complexity, all in Spanish.  Quinn’s control of written Spanish far exceeds expectations for this level, and his compositions – even the rough drafts – are a joy to read for their cogent observations, keen analysis and sophisticated use of Spanish.  ¡Felicidades y enhorabuena, Quinn!”

Oct. 29 - Claire O'Keeffe (Sr. • Women's Soccer)

Claire O’Keeffe is a senior majoring in political science. Claire has continuously made significant academic achievements throughout her time at Elon.  She currently owns a 3.94 GPA and has made the President’s List five of her six semesters. Claire’s professor, Sean Giovanello, said “Claire O’Keeffe is one of the smartest students to ever walk into my classroom.  It would make sense for me to tout her academic achievements, of which there are many, but Claire’s smarts are more than equaled by her strong character and wonderful personality.  She typifies everything Elon looks for in an undergraduate and student-athlete.  Simply, I am honored to be her professor.”  

Oct. 23 - Kelsey Evans (Sr. • Women's Basketball)

Kelsey Evans presented her research entitled ‘Sensory Integration of Balance, Simple Sensory Reaction Time, and ImPACT Scores in Division I Collegiate Athletes’ at the Concussion in Athletics Conference at Penn State University October 11-12.  She has been involved with the research project since the fall of 2011 and spent the summer continuing research with Dr. Caroline Ketcham and Dr. Eric Hall, examining the relationship between different sensory, cognitive and motor functions in athletes with a history of concussions and providing baseline testing for over 300 high school and collegiate athletes as a part of Elon BrainCARE. Kelsey’s research mentor, Dr. Caroline Ketcham said, ‘I am most impressed with Kelsey’s internal drive to pursue everything she does with passion. She is truly a leader and a role model both on and off the court. Kelsey has been an integral part of every aspect of this research and impressed some of the premier names in Concussion Neuroscience and Sport Neurology with her knowledge and her confidence as an undergraduate research student. I have no doubt Kelsey will continue to make an impact as she pursues her dreams!’

Oct. 8 - David Williams (Sr. • Football)

This summer David Williams completed an internship with JPMorgan Chase in Manhattan, N.Y. within their Technology Development Program. He spent nine weeks working as an Application Developer and Business Systems Analyst in the MIS-Business Intelligence group. David was given the opportunity to develop an original software tool for project forecasting that will be implemented within the group in the next few months. The development process involved interactions with multiple levels of management to ensure that the software tool would satisfy all their functional and usability requirements. He said that it “was an extremely rewarding experience to be able to develop a new tool on my own that will add value to the business group. In addition to the software tool, I was able to network with a wide variety of team members within the firm and got a better understanding of how leveraging the best technology creates a competitive edge in the financial services industry.”  David’s exceptional work over the summer paid off when he was recently offered a full-time job with JPMorgan Chase in New York after graduation.  

Oct. 1 - Carly Ledbetter (Sr. • Volleyball)


Sept. 24 - Aaron Mellette (Sr. • Football)

Aaron Mellette is a senior sport and event management major.  He earned the highest GPA of his career last spring, making the President’s List with all A’s.  He is building on that success in his final semester this fall.  Dr. Jim Drummond taught Aaron in his Senior Seminar class in the spring and stated that, “Aaron exhibited an eclectic, intellectually mature demeanor in senior seminar. He listened carefully, analyzed issues presented, then responded thoughtfully and respectfully to new ideas, questions and class debate. It gave me much pleasure witnessing his academic progress, sincerity and dedication to intellectual accomplishment especially in this time of societal questioning of the value of higher education."


Sept. 17 - Lauren Oldham (Jr. • Softball)

Lauren Oldham spent the summer conducting research through Elon’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience program.  She presented her research to the Elon community on Friday, September 14, 2012, in the September Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors.  The purpose of Lauren’s research was to examine the role of diversity, defined by gender, on a team’s performance.  She found that diverse staffs have a higher overall winning percentage and that the number of female head softball coaches at the Division I level has decreased since 1995.  Lauren’s research mentor, Dr. Tony Weaver, said that she “did an excellent job examining a topic often discussed in the classroom and developed a well designed research project.  I could not have been more pleased with her effort and dedication to the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience.  Lauren is a model student-athlete."

Sept. 10 - Amanda Parker (Jr. • Women's Cross Country)

This summer Amanda Parker participated in the Elon in L.A. program.  While taking the class “Public Relations & Events in Entertainment," Amanda also served as an intern with Ellen Rakieten Entertainment, a production company founded in 2009. Ellen Rakieten is an Emmy winner and formerly the Senior Supervising Producer, Executive Producer and Executive Vice President of Creative Development for "The Oprah Winfrey Show."  Amanda was responsible for managing the social media for Hideous Houses, which airs on the A&E Network.  In addition, Amanda was responsible for writing a synopsis of each episode to be used on the show’s website.  Amanda enjoyed her experience and gained further insight into how to create effective publicity for the entertainment industry.