AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Commissioner Marvin Vanover recently announced the 16th edition of the Peach Belt Conference Presidential Honor Roll, a list that includes 78 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 2006-07 academic year. This year’s list includes a record 844 student-athletes from the 12 member institutions.

Francis Marion ranked fourth among the schools in total number of honorees, behind only Georgia College & State University (92), USC Aiken (88), and USC Upstate (85).

FMU placed student-athletes on the list from 11 of its 12 sponsored sports.

“It is extremely gratifying that more than 43 percent of all our student-athletes have earned a spot on this list,” said FMU director of athletics Murray Hartzler.  “This continues a trend where our student-athletes excel in the classroom as well as on the playing field.” Each academic year, approximately 180 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: women’s volleyball player Lezlie Logan (Cleburne, Texas); women’s soccer players Keri Barton (White Marsh, Md.), Jody Rhoderick (Middletown, Md.), and Brittany Rothenbach (Bel Air, Md.); and women’s tennis players Jordan Gettys (Manning) and Kamini Murugaboopathy (Chenai, India).

Earlier this year, 118 student-athletes at Francis Marion were named to the university’s Swamp Fox Athletic-Academic Honor Roll.

FMU student-athletes named to the 2006-07 PBC Presidential Honor Roll are: