Eight student-athletes from the University of Kentucky have been named to the CSC (College Sports Communicators) 2023 Academic All-District At-Large Team. Kentucky’s representative athletes include Kaitlin DeGuzman, Shealyn Luksik, and Jillian Procasky from women’s gymnastics; Richard Clark and Mitchell Nelson from rifle; Laney Frye and Marissa Wenzler from women’s golf; and Alex Goff from men’s golf.
The CSC Academic All-District At-Large Team seeks to recognize elite student-athletes who excel in both their athletic and academic realms. Members of the CSC select teams to honor such student-athletes for their combined performances in the classroom and the field or court. CSC members separately vote for Honorees in four divisions, namely NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, and NAIA. Honorees of the CSC Academic All-District advance to the CSC Academic All-America ballot. First-, second-, and third-team Academic All-America Honorees will be announced on the 21st of June.
Kaitlin DeGuzman graduated in December 2022 with a Bachelor’s degree in healthcare communication with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She has been honored thrice as WCGA All-America Scholar-Athlete and four times as SEC Winter Sports Honor Roll honoree. Despite a junior year truncated due to injury, she bounced back in her senior year, earning a new career and season-high score on the uneven bars with a 9.925. She repeated that score four times throughout 2023.
Shealyn Luksik also excelled in gymnastics and the classroom, earning a cumulative GPA of 3.958, majoring in human health sciences while graduating in Kentucky. She earned All-SEC and WCGA All-America honors in gymnastics, obtaining the highest score of 9.900 in balance beam. Laney Frye and Marissa Wenzler from women’s golf bagged All-SEC honors. Frye was named to the All-SEC Second Team and participated in the 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She set four individual scoring records throughout the season while Wenzler won the 2022-23 CATSPY’s Supporting Role Award.
Richard Clark and Mitchell Nelson from rifle played pivotal roles for the Kentucky rifle team during the 2022-23 season, which helped the Wildcats win the Great America Rifle Conference Regular-Season Championship and finish third at NCAAs. Clark finished second on the team in aggregate average of 1180.933 and earned the first-team All-GARC honors in smallbore and combined. Nelson finished tied as Kentucky’s top performer at the 2023 NCAA Championships.
Meanwhile, Alex Goff from men’s golf was a Second-Team All-Southeastern Conference selection in 2022-23, starting in all ten team events for the Wildcats. He led the team with a 70.73 scoring average with a team-high five top-10 finishes and nine in the top 20. With a 3.556 grade-point average in his finance graduate program, Goff posted the best single-season scoring average of the team since the 1993-94 season. He also had 24 rounds of par-or-better, including a team-best 20 under-par.
Overall, Kentucky offers world-class facilities, coaches, and academic excellence to help student-athletes achieve their goals and become successful in their chosen sports and career paths. Kentucky has a unique blend of tradition and innovation that creates a supportive learning experience for all its student-athletes.
