SPARTANBURG, S.C. – 42 Western Carolina student-athletes were among 443 student-athletes, a record number for the conference, to be named to the Fall 2023 Academic All-Southern Conference Team, the league announced on Thursday afternoon. 

Each of the SoCon's 10 full member institutions had at least 26 honorees, representing the sports of men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's soccer and volleyball. 

To be eligible for the academic all-conference team, student-athletes must carry at least a 3.3 cumulative grade-point average at the conclusion of the fall semester and were required to compete in at least one-half of their teams' competitions during the recently concluded campaign. In addition, the student-athletes must have successfully completed at least three semesters at their institutions, making true freshmen and first-year transfers ineligible for inclusion.

36 conference student-athletes have maintained a perfect 4.0 cumulative GPAs in the conference with Western Carolina having five student-athletes hit the mark – Julia Gardon (Volleyball), Bailey Hartsough (Volleyball), Sara Klemm (women's cross country), Maggie Lloyd (women's soccer) and Sarah Engen (women's soccer).  

The league's 9 Football teams led the way with 126 academic all-conference selections, while the ten women's soccer teams were second with 111 and the ten women's cross country programs were third with 61. The nine volleyball teams had 53 selections, the six men's soccer teams had 50 selections and the 10 men's cross country teams followed with 42. 

Western Carolina women's soccer paced Catamount athletics for the second straight fall season with 15 members on the 2023 Fall All-Academic list.  

The 443 total selections is the most in SoCon history and 36 perfect GPAs is the second-most selections. The record of 37 perfect GPAs was set in the fall of 2021. 

The SoCon has selected seasonal academic all-conference teams since 2002-03 with the fall 2003 marking the first Fall Academic All-SoCon squad. With league competition in 2020-21 occurring mostly in the second semester, the league named just one team for the academic year instead of naming fall and spring squads as usual.

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