Six Husker Baseball Players Receive Degrees

Lincoln - Six current or former Husker baseball players were among the 49 University of Nebraska student-athletes who graduated during spring commencement ceremonies Saturday morning at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

Current Huskers Craig Corriston and Thad Weber led the contingent as both players attended ceremonies this morning following the 16-inning game with Texas A&M Friday night. Weber, who is  8-2 on the year, received his degree in biological sciences, while Corriston, who is hitting .308 with four homers and 29 RBIs, picked up his degree in sociology.

The former Husker baseball players graduating this weekend include Andy Gerch (2005-07), Mark Hightower (2005-07), Quinton Robertson (2003-04) and Chad Steele (2003-04).

The Husker graduating class provides an exciting mixture of student-athletes who came from near and far to call Nebraska home during their collegiate careers. Nebraska’s 2008 May graduates came to Nebraska from seven countries, including five student-athletes from three Canadian provinces, along with competitors from Germany, Hungary, Israel, Jamaica, Latvia and Mexico. The Husker graduates represent 13 U.S. States, including 23 Nebraska natives.

The Husker graduating class features four CoSIDA Academic All-Americans who combined for six awards during their careers, highlighted by Nebraska’s 2008 Female Student-Athlete-of-the-Year. Sarah Pavan, a four-time All-American on the court for the Nebraska volleyball team, earned two CoSIDA Academic All-American-of-the-Year awards in volleyball and became Nebraska’s first Honda Broderick Cup winner as the nation’s outstanding female student-athlete in 2007. She is also the most recent of NU’s nation-leading 16 NCAA Today’s Top Eight Award winners.

Nebraska Senior Associate Athletic Director for Academics Dennis Leblanc said the May 2008 graduating class consists of strong examples of student-athletes who have the ability to excel in the classroom, in the community and in competition.

“I commend each one of these Nebraska student-athletes for the way they have balanced classwork with competition,” Leblanc said.  “These 49 graduates come from a diverse background from around the country and the world and have represented Nebraska at the highest level in academics and athletics.  The athletic department, the University and the state of Nebraska should be proud.”       

The spring graduating class of 49 is added to the December class of 44 graduates to bring the total number of Husker student-athletes graduating during the 2007-08 academic year to 93 before summer commencement exercises in August.  Nebraska continues to feature one of the highest graduation rates in the nation with an exhausted eligibility graduation rate of 94 percent.