Four Runnin' Bulldogs Among Christenberry Award Winners
May 30, 2019 | Cross Country, General, Swimming, Track & Field, Volleyball, Women's Soccer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Four Runnin' Bulldogs were honored tonight with the 2019 Big South Conference Christenberry Award, which is the highest academic honor that a student-athlete can receive from the conference.
Callista Eckert (Women's Soccer), Emily Nordberg (Women's Swimming), Amy Turlington (Women's Cross Country/Track & Field) and Amanda Sahm (Volleyball) were all honored by the league office.
The George A. Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence is presented annually to the male and female student-athlete with the highest GPA during their undergraduate careers. A record 10 Big South student-athletes were honored at the league's annual meetings tonight.
Eckert (Newnan, Ga.) had 4.0 GPA in English and helped lead the Runnin' Bulldogs to a runner-up finish in the 2018 women's soccer championship in the fall. The Newnan, Ga. native appeared in 21 contests with nine starts as a senior. She played an impressive 1,245 minutes in those contests as a defensive midfielder and recorded one assist. For her career, she played in 56 matches with 32 starts. Off the field, she was a member of the Alpha Chi Honor Society, a Gardner-Webb Dean's List member and Big South Conference Presidential Honor Roll member.
Nordberg (Woodbridge, Va.) is a four-time CCSA Academic All-Conference selection and finished her career with a 4.0 GPA as an Exercise Science major. She received Gardner-Webb's Dee Hunt Award for academic excellence in both 2018 and 2019 and also earned the GWU One-Year Scholastic Achievement Award each of her four years as a Runnin' Bulldog. She swam the backstroke, butterfly and freestyle and achieved personal-bests in the 50-yard freestyle (24.89 seconds), 100-yard butterfly (58.23 seconds) and 100-yard backstroke (58.96 seconds).
Sahm (Marion, Iowa) also had a 4.0 GPA in Exercise Science. She was the 2018 Big South Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the year and appeared in all 111 sets during her senior campaign. She led the 'Dogs with 700 assists, and her 6.31 assists per set ranked seventh among Big South Conference athletes. Sahm also led Gardner-Webb with 23 service aces, while finishing second on the team with 255 digs. For her career, she tallied 2,140 assists and 979 digs. She is one of two student-athletes to receive the Big South's Graduate Fellowship.
Turlington (Spindale, N.C.) was a mid-distance runner for the track & field squad and also ran cross country. She appeared in three Big South Cross Country Championships and finished a career-best 59th this past fall. She set personal bests at the 2019 Big South Outdoor Track & Field Championships, she set personal bests in the 800-meter run (2:19.97) and 5,000-meter run (21:40.05).
The 'Dogs led the conference with four honorees, while Hampton was the only other school to have multiple winners with two. Campbell, Longwood, Winthrop and Radford were also represented with one winner each.
The 2018-19 academic year marks the fifth consecutive year that at least one Runnin' Bulldog earned the George A. Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence.
