AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Commissioner Marvin Vanover recently announced the 12th edition of the Peach Belt Conference Presidential Honor Roll, a list that includes 61 student-athletes from Francis Marion University.

To be named to the Honor Roll, a student-athlete must have maintained a 3.00 grade point average on a 4.00 scale during the 2002-03 academic year.  This year’s list includes 633 student-athletes from the 12 member institutions.

The University of North Florida leads all schools with a record 112 student-athletes named to the Honor Roll, followed by FMU, USC Aiken (58), UNC Pembroke (54), USC Spartanburg (53), Lander University and Kennesaw State University (52), Georgia College & State University (47),  Armstrong Atlantic State University (40), Augusta State University (39), Columbus State University (38), and Clayton College & State University (27).

For seven of the past eight years, FMU has been ranked either first or second in the number of student-athletes on the list.   FMU placed student-athletes on the list from each of the 12 PBC-sponsored sports.

“I am extremely proud of the fact that more than one-third of all our student-athletes have been named to this list,” said FMU director of athletics Murray Hartzler. Each academic year, approximately 175 students compete in intercollegiate athletics at FMU.

Among the FMU athletes named to the honor roll were six who receive this recognition for the fourth time: men’s tennis player Mark Bube (Nuremberg, Germany), golfer Matt Dura (Sumter, S.C.), women’s volleyball player Jen Melahn (Skokie, Ill.), women’s softball catcher Laurie Niego (Chicago, Ill.), men’s soccer defender Justin Smith (Pickerington, Ohio), and women’s softball third baseman Jennifer Sturgeon (Orange, Calif.).

Earlier this year, 88 student-athletes at Francis Marion were named to the university’s Swamp Fox Athletic-Academic Honor Roll.

FMU student-athletes named to the 2002-03 PBC Presidential Honor Roll are:

#5/7-10-03