Special to the News

04/28 at 12:45 AM

A total of 29 Auburn student-athletes have been named to the 2009-10 Southeastern Conference Winter Academic Honor Roll, it was announced Tuesday by SEC Commissioner Mike Slive.

The 2009-10 SEC Winter Academic Honor Roll is based on grades from the 2009 Spring, Summer and Fall terms.

Men’s and women’s swimming and diving shared the honor of having the most athletes earn SEC Academic Honor Roll distinctions with 10 each.

The men’s honorees were Jordan Anderson (Biomedical Sciences), Will Dove (Art-Liberal Arts), Adam Godzinski (Pre-Business), Adam Klein (Finance), Gideon Louw (Exercise Science),  Kelly Marx (Biomedical Sciences), Dan Mazzaferro (Chemistry), Tyler McGill (Economics), Andrew Mitchell (Biomedical Sciences) and Pascal Wollach (Chemistry).

The women who were recognized were Anna Aguero (Undeclared Sciences and Mathematics), Maggie Bird (Finance), Vennie Dantin (Undeclared Liberal Arts), Micah Lawrence (Pre-Graphic Design), Abby MacGregor (Psychology), Melissa Mark (Applied Math — Actuarial Science), Erica Meissner (Anthropology), Ava Ohlgren (Exercise Science), Melanie Roberts (Exercise Science) and Jennifer VonJouanne (Mathematics Education).

Gymnastics was next with seven student-athletes selected. Lauren Brzostowski (Apparel Merchandising), Laura Lane (Applied Math — Actuarial Science), Kelsie Montgomery (Hotel and Restaurant Management), Kylie Shields (Hotel and Restaurant Management), Kendall Swartz (Apparel Merchandising), Leah Vining (Mathematics) and Krissy Voss (Chemistry) were honored by the SEC.

The men’s basketball team was represented by Josh Wallace (Pre-Civil Engineering), while the women’s basketball team representative was Alli Smalley (Early Childhood Education).

Clanton, Schepperle, Yadloczky honored
The Southeastern Conference announced its All-SEC teams Tuesday, with three Tigers making the cut as Cydney Clanton was named to the All-SEC First team while Candace Schepperle was named to the second team.

Carlie Yadloczky was named to the All-SEC Freshman Team.

Clanton earned All-SEC First Team honors for the third year in a row while Schepperle was named to an All-SEC for the fourth time in her career. She had previously earned second-team honors as a freshman and sophomore, and was a first-team honoree last season.

Clanton has acted as a steady force for the Auburn squad this year, providing a team-best 71.36 stroke average. The Concord, N.C., native has tallied top-10 finishes in each tournament this season, including two victories and two runner-up outings. Clanton has gone 22-for-22 in rounds counted this season and holds a team-best 13 sub-par rounds.

“Cydney was in the running for SEC Golfer of the Year, she has had a great year and it is continuing,” said Auburn head coach Kim Evans. “We are excited for her. She has not finished out of the top 10 and only twice out of the top five this season, she is having one of those incredible years.”

With Clanton being named to the First-Team All SEC, the Auburn women’s golf program has had at least one golfer selected to the elite squad for the past 18 years.

For the third time in her career, Schepperle was named to the All-SEC Second-Team. During the season, Schepperle logged five top-10 finishes and also owns a 73.77 stroke average.

“Candace had a very solid year this year,” said Evans. “She has played some great golf, but I think her best may be ahead of her. She is a four-time All-SEC player for us and has done an amazing job.”

Yadloczky made the All-SEC Freshman Team after posting an impressive first year in which she posted three top-20 finishes and led the team in one tournament. The Casselberry, Fla., native claims a 75.40 stroke average on the season.

“Carlie is a very talented freshman and has had a great first season,” said Evans. “She holds a lot of promise here and I think this will get her fired up and really get her going.”

Auburn will return to action May 6-8 as the team travels to Greenville, N.C., to participate in NCAA East Regional Championship at the Ironwood Country Club.

Softball rallies past Jacksonville State
Kelsey Cartwright’s RBI single in the fifth inning broke a tie game and sparked a four-run rally as the Auburn softball team defeated Jacksonville State, 8-5, on Tuesday night.

Auburn improved to 26-23 overall, while Jacksonville State dropped to 23-17. The Tigers will next play Middle Tennessee on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Metro Kiwanis Sportsplex in Huntsville.

Auburn reliever Anna Thompson earned the win to improve to 14-8. Thompson went 1 2/3 innings, allowed one run, earned, on one hit with no walks and four strikeouts. Jenee Loree earned her first save of the season after halting a potential seventh-inning rally. Loree went one inning, allowed one hit and struck out one.

Angel Bunner started for Auburn and went 4 1/3 innings, allowing three runs, all earned, on six hits with a walk and a strikeout. Lauren Schmalz relieved Thompson in the seventh and did not record an out, allowing one run, earned, on one hit and one walk.

Hillary Phillips took the loss in relief to fall to 7-10. Phillips allowed four runs, one earned, on five hits with a walk and a strikeout in three innings.

The Tigers wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as Amber Harrison blasted a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first inning for a 1-0 AU lead. It was Harrison’s fourth home run of the season and marked the fourth consecutive game the Tigers had gone yard, tying the fifth-longest streak in team history.

Auburn added to its lead in the second inning. Lauren Guzman walked to open the second inning and reached second on a ground ball fielder’s choice by Cartwright. A sacrifice bunt by Kelley Smiley moved Guzman to third and Cartwright to second. Krista Clyde then brought Guzman home with a sacrifice fly to left to make it a 2-0 lead for the Tigers.

Guzman made it a 4-0 Auburn lead with a two-out double in the third inning that plated Harrison and Katie Colton. Harrison opened the bottom of the inning with a single and moved to second when Colton was hit by a pitch. The runners moved to third and second on a sacrifice bunt by Kyndall White and scored on Guzman’s double to the gap in right-center.

Jacksonville State cut the deficit in half when Chrissy O’Neal singled home two runs in the top of the fifth inning to make it a 4-2 game. Kaycee Crow and Mary Beth Ledbetter reached on consecutive singles to open the fifth and advanced to third and second, respectively, on a sacrifice bunt by Tess Echols. O’Neal then followed with a single to center to drive in both runners.

Following the two-run single, Bunner was lifted for Thompson. Kelci Johnston greeted Thompson with a game-tying home run to left-center on a 2-2 pitch. It was Johnston’s fourth home run of the season.

The Tigers took a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the fifth when Cartwright singled through the left side to bring White home from second. White singled with one out and moved to second on a single by Guzman. Following Cartwright’s RBI single, Smiley reached on an error by the third baseman to load the bases with two outs.

Clyde then laced a double off the wall in right to clear the bases and score all three runs and give the Tigers an 8-4 lead.

Schmalz relieved Thompson to start the seventh inning and was greeted by Ledbetter who launched a leadoff home run to center that cut the Auburn lead to 8-5. It was Ledbetter’s third home run of the season. Echols followed with a fly to right that was dropped by Megan Mitchell. After a walk to O’Neal put runners on first and second with no outs, Schmalz was pulled for Loree.

Johnston greeted Loree with a hard single through the right side to load the bases. Loree forced Nikkie Prier to fly out to shallow center for the first out, the runners were unable to advance on the play. Sallie Beth Burch then fouled out to first for the second out and Loree got Hilary Downs swinging for strike three to end the game.

Kopsick named to All-SEC 2nd team
Auburn sophomore golfer Kyle Kopsick was named 2010 second-team All-SEC, while redshirt freshman David Zickler earned All-SEC Freshman Team honors, the league announced Tuesday.

“These guys worked hard all season to improve their games and reach this point,” said Auburn head coach Nick Clinard.  “Assistant coach (Evan) Osteen and I are extremely proud for them and are excited to see them both mature on and off the course in the years to come.”

Kopsick leads the Tigers with five top-10 finishes this season, including a record-setting victory at the Gary Koch Invitational in Tampa.  Kopsick also leads all Tigers in sub-par rounds (8) and rounds in the 60s (7).

Zickler’s 2009-10 scoring average (73.43) was the lowest of any Auburn freshman since Glenn Northcutt (73.33) in 2005-06. A native of Florence, Zickler recorded his lowest finish of the season at the 2010 SEC Championship, tying for 18th at 5-over par.