Auburn athletes graduate

Courtesy of Auburn sports information

AUBURN — A total of 52 Auburn student-athletes graduated as part of the Auburn University’s Spring 2011 graduating class on Monday in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

The graduates represent 17 of Auburn’s sport programs, including seven men’s swimming and diving athletes, six from baseball, five each from football and women’s track and field, four from equestrian and men’s track and field, three from women’s tennis and volleyball, two each from softball, women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis, women’s golf, gymnastics and one each from soccer, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.


The seven men’s swimming and diving graduates include Gideon Louw (South Africa), Kyle Maese (Portland, Ore.), Kelly Marx (Overland Park, Kan.), Tyler McGill (Champaign, Ill.), Andrew Mitchell (Nashville, Tenn.), Michael Silva (Tampa, Fla.) and Pascal Wollach (Calgary, Alberta, Canada).


The six from baseball are Justin Hargett (Hartselle, Ala.), Michael Hurst (Vestavia Hills, Ala.), Jon Luke Jacobs (Gainestown, Ala.), Christopher O’Neil (Birmingham, Ala.), Kevin Patterson (Birmingham, Ala.) and Sean Ray (Virginia Beach, Va.).


The five graduates from football are Kodi Burns (Fort Smith, Ark.), Neil Caudle (Hoover, Ala.), Wade Christopher (Vestavia Hills, Ala.), Adam Herring (Springdale, Ark.) and Derek Winter (Tampa, Fla.).


The five from women’s track and field are Erika Akins (Madison, Ala.), Miriam Arusei (Eldoret, Kenya), Brittany Mattrella (Hoover, Ala.), Allison Smith (Mobile, Ala.) and Laurel Pritchard Novack (Vestavia Hills, Ala.).


The four from men’s track and field are Michael Dehaven (Tyrone, Ga.), Stephen Fly (Memphis, Tenn.), Nicholas Green (Atlanta, Ga.) and Joseph Peake (Macon, Ga.).


The four from equestrian are Amy Bohan (Niceville, Fla.), Dorothy Grubb (West Palm Beach, Fla.), Alexandra Loprete (Coltsneck, N.J.), and Anna Schierholz (St. Louis, Mo.)


The three from volleyball are Elizabeth Crouch (New Orleans, La.), Alyssa Davis (Oakland Park, Fla.) and Jonelle Wallace (Denver, Colo.) while the three from women’s tennis are Dunja Djuranovic (Bukovac, Serbia), Jil Hastenrath (Solingen, Germany) and Myrthe Molenveld (Haasbergen, Netherlands).


The two graduates from softball are Katie Colton (Yucaipa, Calif.) and Holly Ragsdale (Dadeville, Ala.), two from women’s swimming and diving are Ava Ohlgren (Northville, Mich.) and Melanie Roberts (Rochester, N.Y.), two from men’s tennis are Nicholas Maurillo (Ft. Myers, Fla.) and Tim Puetz (Usingen, Germany), two from women’s golf are Cydney Clanton (Concord, N.H.) and Madison Overbey (High Point, N.C.) and the two from gymnastics are Carmen Nelms (Stone Mountain, Ga.) and Kristina Voss (Paradise Valley, Ariz.).

There was one graduate each with Caitlin King (St. Louis, Mo.) of women’s soccer, Douglas Merrell (Birmingham, Ala.) of men’s basketball and Reneisha Hobbs (Huntsville, Ala.) of women’s basketball.


The two graduates from Operation Follow-thru were Harold Morrow and David Rocker of football.

There were four NCAA Champions, one Olympian, 13 All-Americans, six SEC Champions, 10 All-SEC members, one Academic All-American, 24 SEC Academic Honor Roll members, one SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year, one Academic All-District and one Freshman All-SEC selection.


The 52 graduates collectively hail from 18 states and seven countries.