62 Huskers Earn Degrees

Lincoln - A total of 62 Husker student-athletes received diplomas at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s commencement exercises at Pinnacle Bank Arena Saturday, May 5, at 9:30 a.m. 

The Nebraska men’s and women’s track and field and cross country programs contributed 23 student-athlete graduates, including seven All-Americans who combined for 10 All-America awards during their Husker careers. Two-time All-Americans Steven Cahoy (Grand Island, Nebraska), Andy Neal (Lincoln, Nebraska) and Cody Walton (Forest Lake, Minnesota) were joined by Grant Anderson (Wayne, Nebraska), Mike McCann (Smithtown, New York) and Tanner Townsend (Castle Rock, Colorado) as graduating All-Americans on the men’s side, while Sarah Firestone (Mercersburg, Pennsylvania) and Jazmin McCoy (Kansas City, Missouri) added All-America awards for the Husker women.

Overall, Nebraska had 15 student-athletes combine for 19 All-America awards in its group of 62 graduates.

The Nebraska football program contributed eight student-athletes to the list of May graduates, including 2017 CoSIDA Academic All-American Chris Weber (Omaha, Nebraska). Weber led Nebraska with 95 tackles from his linebacker spot as a senior. He was a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete and earned a Wayne Duke Postgraduate Scholarship from the Big Ten Conference.

Returning starters Freedom Akinmoladun (Grandview, Missouri), Tanner Farmer (Highland, Illinois), Jerald Foster (Lincoln, Nebraska), Luke Gifford (Lincoln, Nebraska) and Mikale Wilbon (Chicago, Illinois) lead a group of six May graduates including Peyton Newell (Hiawatha, Kansas) who earned their degrees before playing their final seasons on the football field for the Big Red in 2018. Zack Darlington (Apopka, Florida) rounded out the graduating class of Husker football student-athletes.

The Nebraska baseball program pitched in six May graduates, headlined by All-American Scott Schreiber (Menasha, Wisconsin) and pitcher Jake Hohensee (Lincoln, Nebraska). Other current Husker baseball players in the graduating class include Nate Fisher (Yutan, Nebraska) and Zack Engelken (Overland Park, Kansas), along with former Huskers Derek Burkamper (Muscatine, Iowa) and Richard Stock (Westlake Village, California). The Huskers squared off in a Big Ten home series with Maryland on graduation weekend at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.

The Husker softball program added five graduates to the list, headlined by former All-American MJ Knighten (Buena Park, California). Current Huskers Laura Barrow (Kearney, Missouri), Kaylan Jablonski (Omaha, Nebraska), Taylor Otte (Wahoo, Nebraska) and Austen Urness (Lake Elsinore, California) add to the class while they competed in their final regular-season series at Illinois over graduation weekend.

The national champion Nebraska volleyball program contributed All-American Annika Albrecht (North Aurora, Illinois) to the graduating class along with two-time NCAA Elite 90 Award winner Sydney Townsend (Lincoln, Nebraska) and former Husker Olivia Boender (Waverly, Nebraska).

Five members of the Nebraska men’s gymnastics team that finished fifth at the 2018 NCAA Championships will graduate Saturday, led by 2018 Nebraska Male Student-Athlete-of-the-Year Chris Stephenson (Fishers, Indiana). Stephenson, who earned All-America honors on parallel bars in 2018, is joined by fellow All-American Connor Adamsick (Mundelein, Illinois), who earned honors on the floor exercise in 2018. Antonio Castro (Pinecrest, Florida), Travis Gollott (Livermore, California) and Brenon Sommers (Elgin, Illinois) complete a strong graduating class from the men’s gymnastics program.

The Nebraska men’s basketball program contributed three graduates to the class, led by Isaac Copeland (Raleigh, North Carolina), Evan Taylor (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Malcolm Laws (Orlando, Florida), while the Husker women’s basketball team added Jasmine Cincore (Arlington, Tennessee) and Janay Morton (Brooklyn Park, Minnesota) to the graduating class.

Justin Arthur (Huntington, West Virginia) and Mitchell Maginnis (Grand Island, Nebraska) both represent the Nebraska wrestling program among the Husker graduates. The Husker rifle team added three-time All-American Dacotah Faught (Amenia, North Dakota) to the class, while the Nebraska swimming and diving program pitched in All-America diver Anna Filipcic (Omaha, Nebraska) to the distinguished group of graduates.

Soccer’s Alli Peterson (Iowa City, Iowa) and women’s golfer Emily Gillman (Austin, Texas) completed the class.

NU’s May 2018 graduates came from near and far to call Nebraska home during their careers. The group came to Lincoln from 21 states across America, including 19 native Nebraskans. They are part of the largest graduating class in University of Nebraska history, made up of more than 3,250 graduate and undergraduate students from 46 states and 61 countries from around the world. Nebraska continues to feature one of the highest graduation rates in the country, while leading the nation in the number of CoSIDA Academic All-Americans (330) and NCAA Top 10 Award winners (17) across all sports.

May 2018 Nebraska Student-Athlete Graduates (62)

• Connor Adamsick, Men's Gymnastics (Mundelein, Illinois) - Civil Engineering
• Freedom Akinmoladun, Football (Grandview, Missouri) - Psychology
• Annika Albrecht, Volleyball (North Aurora, Illinois) - Child, Youth & Family Studies
• Grant Anderson, Track & Field (Wayne, Nebraska) - Management/Marketing
• Justin Arthur, Wrestling (Huntington, West Virginia) - Criminology & Criminal Justice
• Laura Barrow, Softball (Kearney, Missouri) - Marketing
• Olivia Boender, Volleyball (Waverly, Nebraska) - Child, Youth & Family Studies
• Derek Burkamper, Baseball (Muscatine, Iowa) - Criminology & Criminal Justice
• Steven Cahoy, Track & Field (Grand Island, Nebraska) - Biological Systems Engineering
• Kendall Cast, Track & Field/Cross Country (Aurora, Illinois) - Chemical Engineering
• Antonio Castro, Men's Gymnastics (Pinecrest, Florida) - Computer Science
• Jasmine Cincore, Women's Basketball (Arlington, Tennessee) - Advertising & Public Relations
• Davon Clark, Track & Field (Miami, Florida) - Criminology & Criminal Justice
• Isaac Copeland, Men's Basketball (Raleigh, North Carolina) - Sociology
• Karlye Cygan, Track & Field (Lincoln, Nebraska) - Biological Sciences
• Chris Daniels, Track & Field (Canton, Ohio) - French
• Zack Darlington, Football (Apopka, Florida) - Communication Studies
• Seth Derr, Track & Field (Phillipsburg, Kansas) - Business Administration
• Zack Engelken, Baseball (Overland Park, Kansas) - Accounting
• Tanner Farmer, Football (Highland, Illinois) - Nutrition, Exercise & Health Science
• Dacotah Faught, Rifle (Amenia, North Dakota) - Chemistry
• Anna Filipcic, Swimming & Diving (Omaha, Nebraska) - Music/Psychology
• Sarah Firestone, Track & Field (Mercersburg, Pennsylvania) - Advertising & Public Relations/Broadcasting
• Nate Fisher, Baseball (Yutan, Nebraska) - Finance
• Jerald Foster, Football (Lincoln, Nebraska) - Construction Management
• Noah Gabel, Track & Field (Colorado Springs, Colorado) - Communication Studies
• Luke Gifford, Football (Lincoln, Nebraska) - Management
• Emily Gillman, Women's Golf (Austin, Texas) - Marketing
• Travis Gollott, Men's Gymnastics (Livermore, California) - Criminology & Criminal Justice
• Jake Hohensee, Baseball (Lincoln, Nebraska) - History
• Jackson Ingram, Track & Field (Lincoln, Nebraska) - Nutrition, Exercise & Health Science
• Kaylan Jablonski, Softball (Omaha, Nebraska) - Child, Youth & Family Studies
• Mark Jarecki, Track & Field (Columbus, Nebraska) - Nutrition, Exercise & Health Science
• MJ Knighten, Softball (Buena Park, California) - Broadcasting
• Malcolm Laws, Men's Basketball (Orlando, Florida) - Communication Studies
• Pat Letz, Track & Field/Cross Country (Palos Park, Illinois) - Civil Engineering
• Mitchell Maginnis, Wrestling (Grand Island, Nebraska) - Nutrition Science
• Mike McCann, Track & Field (Smithtown, New York) - Child, Youth & Family Studies
• Jazmin McCoy, Track & Field (Kansas City, Missouri) - Child, Youth & Family Studies
• Kamerin Moore, Women's Gymnastics (West Bloomfield, Michigan) - Child, Youth & Family Studies
• Janay Morton, Women's Basketball (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) - Psychology
• Andy Neal, Track & Field (Lincoln, Nebraska) - Mechanical Engineering
• Peyton Newell, Football (Hiawatha, Kansas) - Management
• Taylor Otte, Softball (Wahoo, Nebraska) - Child, Youth & Family Studies
• Anna Peer, Track & Field/Cross Country (Bettendorf, Iowa) - Biological Sciences
• Alli Peterson, Soccer (Iowa City, Iowa) - Advertising & Public Relations
• Danie Plank, Track & Field (Gardner, Kansas) - Child, Youth & Family Studies
• Austin Post, Track & Field/Cross Country (Omaha, Nebraska) - Biological Sciences
• Katrina Santiago, Track & Field/Cross Country (Miami, Florida) - Animal Science
• Scott Schreiber, Baseball (Menasha, Wisconsin) - Mechanized Systems Management
• Brenon Sommers, Men's Gymnastics (Elgin, Illinois) - Hospitality, Restaurant & Tourism Management
• Peter Spinks, Track & Field/Cross Country (Layton, New Jersey) - Civil Engineering
• Chris Stephenson, Men's Gymnastics (Fishers, Indiana) - Biological Sciences
• Richard Stock, Baseball (Westlake Village, California) - English
• Evan Taylor, Men's Basketball (Cincinnati, Ohio) - Sociology
• Sydney Townsend, Volleyball (Lincoln, Nebraska) - Biochemistry
• Tanner Townsend, Track & Field (Castle Rock, Colorado) - Communication Studies
• Shauna Tweedy, Track & Field (Wahoo, Nebraska) - Animal Science
• Austen Urness, Softball (Lake Elsinore, California) - Psychology
• Cody Walton, Track & Field (Forest Lake, Minnesota) - Supply Chain Management
• Chris Weber, Football (Omaha, Nebraska) - Nutrition Science
• Mikale Wilbon, Football (Chicago, Illinois) - Sociology