Record 103 Husker Grads Led by All-Americans, NCAA Champions
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Lincoln - A school-record 103 Husker student-athletes will earn degrees this weekend during the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s commencement ceremonies, with graduate commencement occurring on Friday at 3 p.m. at Pinnacle Bank Arena, before undergraduate commencement is held at Memorial Stadium Saturday at 9 a.m.
The elite group of Huskers is powered by 18 student-athletes who combined for 47 All-America awards in collegiate competition during their careers. The class features a pair of NCAA Champions in Rhema Otabor (javelin, 2023) and Cecelia Ossi (smallbore rifle, 2023), and two NCAA silver medalist men’s gymnasts in Taylor Christopulos (floor, 2024; all-around, 2023) and Zac Tiderman (high bar, 2024).
Nebraska’s largest class of student-athlete graduates in history also features a pair of NFL players who returned to Lincoln to complete their degrees. Current Cincinnati defensive back Cam Taylor-Britt, who helped the Bengals to the 2022 AFC Championship Game, will claim his degree as a criminology and criminal justice major. Taylor-Britt has started 20 games in his first two professional seasons after being chosen in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft by Cincinnati.
Nathan Gerry, who was a fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2017 NFL Draft, completed his degree as a sociology major. The linebacker/safety from Sioux Falls, S.D., helped the Eagles to a championship in Super Bowl LII, while also playing for San Francisco and Washington during his career.
Taylor-Britt, Gerry, 2024 Nebraska Outstanding Male Student-Athlete Ethan Piper and Husker dual-sport star Nash Hutmacher are among 15 current or former Husker football players in the huge class of May graduates. In addition, punter Brian Buschini earned his master's degree on Friday - his second degree from Nebraska - and is expected to play the 2024 season with his bachelor's degree in criminology and criminal justice and his master's degree in construction engineering and management in hand. Buschini is not included among the official count of Husker graduates, which includes only student-athletes earning their first degrees from the University.
Former Husker baseball star Ryan Boldt also returned to Lincoln for his degree. Boldt, who was a two-time College Sports Communicators Academic All-American (2015, 2016) as an outfielder for the Huskers, was a second-round pick of the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2016 MLB Draft following his junior season. The Red Wing, Minn., native overcame injuries to advance to a pair of seasons with the AAA Durham Bulls, where he played a total of 152 games in 2021 and 2022. He earned his bachelor’s degree as a nutrition and health sciences major.
Boldt is one of eight current and former Husker baseball players to graduate on Saturday, including Nebraska ace Brett Sears, who pitched the Big Red to a 2-1 win at Michigan State on Thursday night. Sears, who was announced as a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Award earlier this week, is 8-0 with a 2.05 ERA and is the leading contender for Big Ten Pitcher-of-the-Year honors. Garrett Anglim, Cole Evans, Trey Frahm, Bryce Hughes, Will Walsh and former teammate Luke Sartori will also graduate this weekend while the Huskers battle for the Big Ten regular-season title.
A huge collection of 33 men’s and women’s track and field student-athletes make up nearly one-third of Nebraska’s graduating class. The Husker track and field graduates include nine athletes who have combined for 18 first- or second-team All-America honors as collegians, including 2023 NCAA champion and two-time Big Ten javelin champion Rhema Otabor. The two-time first-team All-American from the Bahamas is joined by four-time All-Americans and three-time Big Ten champions Jenna Rogers (high jump) and Darius Luff (hurdles) in the graduating class.
Nebraska’s graduating track and field All-Americans also include Mirta Kulisic (javelin), Micaylon Moore (triple jump), Lorenzo Paissan (4x100), Arthur Petersen (javelin), Brithton Senior (4x100) and La’Qwasia Stepney (high jump).
A group of five Husker men’s gymnasts also add big accomplishments in competition to the graduating class with four athletes who combined for 13 career NCAA All-America honors. Taylor Christopulos, the 2023 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, was an eight-time All-American and the NCAA runner-up in the all-around (2023) and floor exercise (2024). Zac Tiderman added a pair of All-America honors, including a runner-up trophy on high bar in 2024. Sam Phillips also contributed two All-America awards, while Cooper Giles added an All-America honor.
The Nebraska volleyball team adds more impressive credentials to the class with three-time All-American and two-time CSC Academic All-American Lexi Rodriguez leading the way. Rodriguez, who earned first-team All-America honors on and off the court as a junior libero in 2023, claims her degree as an advertising and public relations major. She is joined by fellow 2023 first-team All-American Merritt Beason among five volleyball players in the class.
Cecelia Ossi, the 2023 NCAA Champion in the smallbore, adds elite level performance to the group. The seven-time All-American and 2023 Nebraska Female Athlete of the Year is among three rifle student-athletes in the class.
Two-time All-American and 2024 Big Ten 149-pound champion Ridge Lovett contributes more honors among three wrestlers in the class, while three-time NTCA All-American Kayla Verstraete also headlines a trio of bowling graduates.
Nebraska’s 2024 Outstanding Female Student-Athlete and 2022 Female Athlete of the Year Billie Andrews leads a group of eight graduates from the softball program, while 2024 College Three-Point Champion Keisei Tominaga adds recognition for the men’s basketball program. Five swimmers, four women’s gymnasts, three men’s and women’s golfers, a pair of soccer student-athletes and a member of the men’s tennis team round out Nebraska’s 2024 class.
The May graduates came from near and far to call Nebraska home during their careers. The group came to Lincoln from 24 states, including 32 native Nebraskans, while 16 more Huskers journeyed to Nebraska from 11 foreign countries (Bahamas, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Slovakia, South Africa).
Nebraska continues to feature one of the highest graduation rates in the country, while leading the Big Ten with 354 CSC Academic All-Americans and NCAA Top 10 Award winners (18) across all sports.
NEBRASKA SPRING 2024 GRADUATES (103)
Baseball (8)
Garrett Anglim (La Vista, Nebraska - Management)
Ryan Boldt (Red Wing, Minnesota - Nutrition & Health Sciences)
Cole Evans (Grand Island, Nebraska - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Trey Frahm (Elkhorn, Nebraska - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Bryce Hughes (Channelview, Texas - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Luke Sartori (Lincoln, Nebraska - Nutrition & Health Sciences)
Brett Sears (Westphalia, Iowa - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Will Walsh (Leawood, Kansas - Management)
Basketball - Men's (1)
Keisei Tominaga (Moriyama, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Basketball - Women's (2)
Kendall Coley (Minneapolis, Minnesota - Advertising & Public Relations)
Annika Stewart (Plymouth, Minnesota - Nutrition & Health Sciences)
Bowling (3)
Alexis Buchert (San Antonio, Texas - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Marissa Cosentini (Wayne, New Jersey - Criminology & Criminal Justice)
Kayla Verstraete (Loves Park, Illinois - Criminology & Criminal Justice)
Football (15)
Nate Boerkircher (Aurora, Nebraska - Finance)
Chief Borders (Chicago, Illinois - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Ru'Quan Buckley (Wyoming, Michigan - Criminology & Criminal Justice)
Gabe Ervin (Buford, Georgia - Management)
Nathan Gerry (Sioux Falls, South Dakota - Sociology)
Heinrich Haarberg (Kearney, Nebraska - Finance)
Ty Hahn (Johnson, Nebraska - Management)
Ashton Hausmann (Roca, Nebraska - Management)
Nash Hutmacher (Oacoma, South Dakota - Management)
Trevin Lubin (Wahoo, Nebraska - Management)
Seth Malcolm (Tabor, Iowa - Management)
Ethan Piper (Norfolk, Nebraska - Science Education (7-12))
Grant Tagge (Omaha, Nebraska - Finance)
Cam Taylor-Britt (Montgomery, Alabama - Criminology & Criminal Justice)
Cam Witucki (Grand Blanc, Michigan - Management)
Golf - Men's (3)
Redd Malleck (York, Nebraska - Finance)
William Marshall (Elburn, Illinois - Mathematics)
Gentry Scheve (Emporia, Kansas - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Golf - Women's (3)
Lena Hassert (Kreuzau, Germany - Business Administration)
Lindsey Thiele (Wahoo, Nebraska - Psychology)
Michaela Vavrova (Bojnice, Slovakia - Hospitality, Restaurant & Tourism Management)
Gymnastics - Men's (5)
Taylor Christopulos (Layton, Utah - Agribusiness)
James Friedman (Salem, Oregon - Accounting)
Cooper Giles (Lake Zurich, Illinois - Nutrition & Health Sciences)
Sam Phillips (Woodland Hills, California - Hospitality, Restaurant & Tourism Management)
Zac Tilderman (Wilsonville, Oregon - Business Administration)
Gymnastics - Women's (4)
Clara Colombo (Caravaggio, Italy - Biochemistry)
Martina Comin (Vicenza, Italy - Business Administration)
Kinsey Davis (Huntersville, North Carolina - Communication Studies)
Caroline Williams (Roswell, Georgia - Communication Sciences & Disorders)
Rifle (3)
Madelynn Erickson (Sutter, California - Nutrition & Health Sciences)
Cecelia Ossi (Annandale, New Jersey - Finance)
Mackenzie Strauch (Belgrade, Montana - Criminology & Criminal Justice)
Soccer (2)
Lauren Buzzell (St. Francis, Minnesota - Criminology & Criminal Justice)
Katie Stoneburner (Omaha, Nebraska - Business Administration)
Softball (8)
Billie Andrews (Gretna, Nebraska - Graphic Design)
Brooke Andrews (Gretna, Nebraska - Psychology)
Camyl Armendariz (La Verne, California - Criminology & Criminal Justice)
Sydney Gray (Tucson, Arizona - Finance)
Kaylin Kinney (Cedar Rapids, Iowa - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Caitlynn Neal (Dewey, Arizona - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Abbey Newlun (The Woodlands, Texas - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Abbie Squier (Lincoln, Nebraska - Finance)
Swimming & Diving (5)
Sarah Barton (Huntersville, North Carolina - Hospitality, Restaurant & Tourism Management)
Caitlin Cairns (Colorado Springs, Colorado - Management)
Gabriela Donahue (Oviedo, Florida - Management / Marketing)
Emily Haimes (Enfield, London, England - History / Psychology)
Lexi Kucera (Hutchinson, Minnesota - Nutrition & Health Sciences)
Tennis - Men's (1)
Shunya Maruyama (Nagano, Japan - Psychology)
Track & Field / Cross Country (33)
Trevor Acton (Lincoln, Nebraska - Marketing)
Matthias Algarin (Pierz, Minnesota - Management)
Cory Berg (Mt. Vernon, Ohio - Construction Management)
Lindsey Blehm (Lincoln, Nebraska - Environmental Science)
Nick Bryant (Memphis, Tennessee - Political Science)
Adam Christopher (Park Ridge, Illinois - Business Administration)
Joseph Clifford (New Concord, Ohio - Emerging Media Arts)
Jessica Gardner (Lincoln, Nebraska - Advertising & Public Relations)
Kolby Heinerikson (Kansas City, Missouri - Biological Sciences)
Jacob Hyde (Rapid City, South Dakota - Management)
Jerry Jorgenson (Treynor, Iowa - Marketing / Advertising & Public Relations)
Mirta Kulisic (Split, Croatia - Biochemistry)
Darius Luff (Lincoln, Nebraska - Criminology & Criminal Justice)
Dais Malebana (Pretoria, South Africa - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Riley Masten (Highlands Ranch, Colorado - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Ashley McElmurry (Missoula, Montana - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Kalynn Meyer (Superior, Nebraska - Agricultural Engineering)
Karlie Moore (Windsor, Ontario, Canada - Broadcasting / Sports Media & Communications)
Micaylon Moore (Fort Collins, Colorado - Biological Sciences)
Tanessa Morris (Brooks, Alberta, Canada - (Master's) Natural Resources Sciences)
Katelyn Mullinax (Naperville, Illinois - Management / Marketing)
Jack Nolley (Lincoln, Nebraska - Software Engineering)
Rhema Otabor (Nassau, Bahamas - Actuarial Science)
Lorenzo Paissan (Trento, Italy - Finance / Management)
Arthur Peterson (Hellerup, Denmark - Management)
Hannah Preissler (Giltner, Nebraska - Sports Media & Communication)
Cal Puskar (Orchard Park, New York - (Master's) Educational Psychology)
Emma Ralston (Papillion, Nebraska - Nutrition & Health Sciences)
Jenna Rogers (Rutherford, New Jersey - Communication Studies & Disorders)
Brithton Senior (Hanover, Jamaica - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Erik Snell (Mount Prospect, Illinois - Nutrition & Health Sciences)
La'Qwasia Stepney (Belleville, Illinois - Criminology & Criminal Justice)
Bennett Vinken (Hamburg, Germany - Management)
Volleyball (5)
Ally Batenhorst (Houston, Texas - Communication Studies)
Merritt Beason (Gardendale, Alabama - Child, Youth & Family Studies)
Lindsay Krause (Papillion, Nebraska - English)
Kennedi Orr (Eagan, Minnesota - Communication Studies)
Lexi Rodriguez (Sterling, Illinois - Advertising & Public Relations)
Wrestling (3)
Nash Hutmacher (Oacoma, South Dakota - Management)
Ridge Lovett (Post Falls, Idaho - Communication Studies)
Alex Thomsen (Neola, Iowa - Biological Systems Engineering)
