Skip Ivery

Becky Barnes

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - Wittenberg University track and field standouts Skip Ivery and Becky Barnes have been recognized for their athletic and academic prowess with first-team CoSIDA Academic All-America College Division All-District IV Track and Field/Cross Country honors.

For Ivery, who graduated in May with a degree in management, it was his fourth academic all-district honor - two in football and two in track and field. A native of Columbus and a graduate of Groveport-Madison High School, Ivery accumulated a 3.80 grade point average during his Wittenberg career, and he was a four-time All-American in track and field.

Barnes, who graduated in May with a degree in English and sociology, is making her first appearance on the academic all-district honor roll. A native of Williamsport, Ohio, and a graduate of Westfall High School, Barnes accumulated a 3.81 grade point average during her Wittenberg career while earning all-conference honors in cross country and track and field during the 2003-04 school year.

Both will now be considered for Academic All-America honors in voting that takes place this month. Ivery made Academic All-America in track and field/cross country in 2003.

Ivery earned four letters in football and four letters in track and field during his outstanding Wittenberg athletic career. He placed second in the 55-meter hurdles at the 2003 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships and fourth in the same event at the 2004 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships. He claimed Wittenberg's third individual national track and field title ever in 2003 when he won the 110-meter hurdles, and he followed that up with a seventh-place finish in 2004. He won four North Coast Athletic Conference indoor hurdles titles and three NCAC outdoor hurdles titles in his career, and he was the Great Lakes Region Indoor Track Athlete of the Year in 2004. He was also the NCAC Sprinter/Hurdler of the Year at both the indoor and outdoor championship meets in 2004.

Ivery also set plenty of records on the football field. A three-year starter at wide receiver, Ivery played on teams that posted a four-year record of 41-7, won two North Coast Athletic Conference championships and advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament three times. He was named first-team All-NCAC twice, and he ended his career ranked in the top five in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.

Ivery's academic resume includes the Broadwell Chin Award, earned last spring as the African-American student with the best GPA and Wittenberg's Woodrow Wilson Prize for Academic Excellence in Management Award. He also was one of 1,000 students nationwide who were awarded scholarships in 2000 from a foundation created by Bill Gates, president of Microsoft Corp., making him Wittenberg's first and only Gates Millennium Scholar. He is also a recipient of a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, which he will put toward his studies in law school at the University of Cincinnati.

Barnes finished second in the steeplechase and third in the 10,000 meters at the 2004 NCAC Outdoor Track and Field Championship meet, her best track finishes ever. Along with garnering All-NCAC honors in both events, Barnes set a school record in the 10,000 meters. In addition, Barnes was Wittenberg's top cross country runner in 2003, leading the team in every race, including the NCAC meet and the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional meet, in which she finished 18th and 30th respectively. Those finishes were good for honorable mention All-NCAC and all-region.

Academically, Barnes, like Ivery, was inducted into Chi Alpha Sigma, the student-athlete honorary. Active in Mortar Board and Habitat for Humanity, she also served as team captain for both cross country and track and field in 2003-04, and she was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, a senior leadership honorary, and Phi Beta Kappa.