Italiano and Erickson Earn MAC’s Highest Honor
6/2/2016 9:41:00 PM | Football, General
CLEVELAND - Kent State seniors Roseanne Erickson (Alexandria, Minn.) and Jordan Italiano (Canfield, Ohio) were among 24 student-athletes from around the Mid-American Conference to earn the Medal of Excellence Award at Wednesday night's Honors Dinner at the Cleveland Renaissance Hotel.
The Medal of Excellence is an award presented annually to one male and one female student-athlete from the graduating class of each of the 12 conference member institutions.
To be honored with the Medal of Excellence Award, student-athletes had to participate on the varsity level in a conference sponsored sport and shown evidence of academic success with a minimum 3.50 accumulative grade-point average, exhibited athletics excellence, leadership and service. Selection of the recipients was made by each MAC institution.
Erickson, a long jumper on the women's track and field team, has accumulated five Individual MAC championships and has been a part of six MAC team titles. In 2014, Erickson earned All-America Second Team honors, finishing 11th in the long jump. This year, she was recently named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District V First Team.
Italiano, a safety on the football team, finished his career with 257 tackles, five interceptions and five forced fumbles. He is the only three-time Academic All-American in program history. Italiano was named Smartest Player in College Football by NFL.com. This past season he became the program's first Campbell Trophy finalist.
"The Medal of Excellence Award is a reinforcement of the core values that we as a conference and each of our member institutions all possess with excellence in academics, athletics, leadership and service," said MAC Commissioner, Jon A. Steinbrecher. "We congratulate all of our Medal of Excellence Award winners."
