BEREA, OHIO — Four Baldwin-Wallace College basketball players, two men and two women, have been tabbed to the prestigious Verizon Academic All-District IV squad. Qualified candidates must be a key team player and carry a minimum 3.2 grade point average. All four Yellow Jackets easily meet this criterion. The teams are selected by CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America).
For the men, senior standouts Shawn McCormick (Massillon Jackson) and Jon Carroll (Berea/ Midpark) were chosen. The duo have helped B-W to produce a 13-12 overall record this season. For the women, it was senior Sarah Gordon (Wooster Senior) and junior Karissa Kusick (Chicora, Pennsylvania/ Karns City). The duo have helped the Yellow Jacket women post a 22-3 overall record and the team is ranked fourth in the Great Lakes Region, 14th nationally in the USA Today/WBCA poll and 15th in the d3hoops.com Internet Web site poll.
McCormick was tabbed as a first-team selection and will now advance to the national Verizon Academic All-America ballot. In the classroom, McCormick is a graduate student pursuing a master’sdegree in Business Administration (MBA) and carries a 3.75 grade point average. On the basketball court, McCormick is both one of the best to ever play at B-W and in the Ohio Athletic Conference.
McCormick is a three-time and soon-to-be four-time All-OAC player who has scored 1,857 career points entering Wednesday’s OAC Tournament opener at Mount Union College.† He currently ranks third all-time in scoring at B-W and needs just 11 more points to be second. McCormick has led B-W in scoring for three straight years, is a four-time all-tournament team pick and a four-time OAC Player of the Week during his career (once each year). He currently tops the Yellow Jackets in scoring at 20.2 points per game, is second in rebounding with 4.8 rpg. and first with 49 three-pointers, 48 steals and shoots 86.5 percent from the foul line. As a freshman, McCormick also was named to the d3hoops.com All-Freshman team.
In addition to taking MBA classes and being a standout on the basketball court, McCormick currently workds a 40-hour-a-week job as a Loan Officer at Huntington Bank in downtown Berea.
Carroll was tabbed to the second-team Academic All-District IV. In the classroom, he carries a better than 3.5 grade point average in business administration and sport management. He is a two-time Academic All-OAC player who has scored 1,069 career points to rank 25th all-time at B-W. Earlier this season, Carroll was tabbed as an OAC Player of the Week.
Carroll is also a Dean’s List student and a member of B-W’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). Currently, Carroll is doing a gameday internship with the Cleveland CAVS Public Relations Office and would like to work either in professional or collegiate athletics.
This season, Carroll is currently third on the team in scoring at 14.0 ppg. and second in both three-pointers with 47 and assists with 101.
Gordon is also a first-team Academic All-District IV choice and now qualifies for the national Verizon Academic All-America ballot. She carries a 3.809 grade point average in psychology and business administration and intends on attending graduate school next year. Gordon is a Dean’s List student, a member of Athletes in Action and SAAC and is involved in a number of academic honoraries.
On the basketball court, Gordon has helped lead B-W to a 97-14 record the past four years, to four straight 20-win seasons, two OAC regular season and two OAC Tournament titles and two appearances in the NCAA Division III “Elite Eight”.
Individually, Gordon has scored 826 career points prior to B-W's Tuesday OAC Tournament opener in Berea, and currently tops the Yellow Jackets in scoring with 12.0 ppg. She also is first with 29 blocked shots and 39 three-pointers.
In addition to her basketball exploits, Gordon is a two-time All-OAC and two-time Verizon Academic All-District IV player in volleyball who was also a first-team Academic All-OAC choice this fall. In her volleyball career, Gordon had more than 1,000 kills and 1,000 defensive digs and helped B-W to an 81-23, its first-ever OAC regular season title, its first-ever OAC Tournament title and an NCAA tourney berth.
Kusick was a third-team Academic All-District IV pick. She carries a 3.806 grade average in chemistry and plans to attend pharmacy school. She is a Dean’s List student and member of the Alpha Lambda Academic Honor Society and B-W's Peer Mentoring program.
On the basketball court, Kusick is the Yellow Jacket point guard. She is currently fourth in scoring at 8.8 ppg. and tops the team with 101 assists.
FOR MORE BALDWIN-WALLACE COLLEGE SPORTS INFORMATION, please call the Sports Information Office at 440-826-2327, FAX us at 440-826-2329 or e-mail Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple at kruple@bw.edu.
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