LEWISBURG, Pa. – A dozen student-athletes from six different sports earned spots on the College Sports Communicators (CSC) At-Large Academic All-District Teams on Tuesday.
 
Bucknell’s honorees were Connor Davis, Louie Germain, Owen Kovacs, and Will Pickering from men’s lacrosse; Kira Leclercq, Lily Neilson, and Nicky Punt from field hockey; Kalena Gatesman and Kona Glenn from rowing; Izzy Lippolis from women’s water polo; Sean Tunnicliff from men’s water polo; and Kurt Phipps from wrestling.
 
Neilson, a two-time All-American who earned the Christy Mathewson Award as the top athlete in Bucknell’s Class of 2025, was selected to advance to the national Academic All-America ballot. Those honorees will be announced on July 8.
 
CSC Academic All-America candidates must have a minimum 3.50 cumulative grade-point average in at least their sophomore year academically and athletically, and they must meet certain sport-specific playing-time requirements. The at-large program covers all NCAA-sponsored sports that do not have their own voting process.
 
Bucknell’s 12 at-large honorees combined for a 3.73 GPA, and all have been prominent members of their teams.
 

COMMERCE – Three East Texas A&M University women’s golfers have earned Academic All-District distinction, as selected by the College Sports Communicators, on Tuesday.
 
Marie Baertz (Luxembourg), Julianna Crow (Trinity School of Midland), and Jordan Dusckas (Flower Mound Marcus) were selected to the Academic All-District teams. It is the second time that Dusckas has earned Academic All-District honors in her career, while it is the first for Baertz and Crow, who were both named to the Southland All-Academic teams last week.  
 

The trio is selected to the Academic All-District teams for the At-Large category which includes eligible student-athletes outside the sports of men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s swimming & diving, men’s and women’s tennis, softball, baseball, and men’s and women’s track and field and cross country.
 
Baertz adds another accolade to her name for the 2024-25 season as she has been named the SLC Women’s Golf Student-Athlete of the Year, first team Southland All-Academic, first team All-Southland, and Southland All-Tournament honors. She is a construction engineering major and just wrapped up her sophomore year as a Lion, having been named to the President’s List.
 
Crow is also a construction engineering major and wrapped up her Lion career this past spring, having earned president’s list honors throughout her Lion career.
 
Dusckas graduated this past May with her degree in marketing, she has also been named to the president’s list in her Lion career and was selected as an all-conference honoree in 2023-24.
 
Baertz, Crow, and Dusckas helped the Lions finish second at the SLC Championships for the second year in a row.
 
The full list of CSC Academic All-District honorees can be found HERE.

 

-ETAMU-

Eric Dane just revealed in April that he’d been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but he’s already lost function in his right arm and worries about weakness on his left side and in his legs.

“My left side is functioning, my right side has completely stopped working,” the Grey’s Anatomy alum said, after sharing he only had “one functioning arm,” in an interview with Diane Sawyer that aired on Monday and Tuesday’s Good Morning America. “I feel like maybe a couple more months and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering.”

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Dane, who appeared somewhat physically weak in the pre-taped conversation, already had a scary incident with his 13-year-old daughter when the former competitive swimmer and water polo player jumped into the water and realized he didn’t have the strength to swim.

“She dragged me back to the boat,” he said of his child, adding that he broke down in tears. “I was just, I was, like, heartbroken.”

Dane said his symptoms began over a year ago when he started to notice weakness in his right hand.

“I didn’t really think anything of it at the time. I thought maybe I’d been texting too much or my hand was fatigued,” he recalled. “But a few weeks later, I noticed it had gotten a little worse.”

He then ended up seeing a series of doctors, including two hand specialists and neurologists, the second of which told him, “This is way above my pay grade.”

After nine months of testing, he got the ALS diagnosis: “I’ll never forget those three letters.”

The neurological disorder, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, affects motor neurons, a type of nerve cell in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement and breathing, according to the National Institutes of Health. As these cells deteriorate, muscles weaken and waste away and the brain loses its ability to start and control functions like walking, talking, chewing and breathing. The disease gets worse over time.

Dane, who plays Cal Jacobs on Euphoria and stars in the upcoming Prime Video police thriller Countdown, was focused on his family as he talked to Sawyer and said he wants to work as long as he’s able.

“I mean, I really, at the end of the day, just, all I want to do is spend time with my family and work a little bit if I can,” he said. “I don’t think this is the end of my story. I just don’t feel like, in my heart, I don’t feel like this is the end of me.”

He grew emotional when he referenced wife, Rebecca Gayheart, whom he called his “biggest champion.”

“I talk to her every day,” he said, pausing to collect himself as he got choked up. “We have managed to become better friends and better parents. And she is … probably my biggest champion and my most stalwart supporter. And I lean on her.”

And after losing his own father to suicide at the age of 7, Dane is “angry” the disease could also take him from his teenage daughters while they’re young.

“I’m angry because, you know, my father was taken from me when I was young,” he said. “And now, you know, there’s a very good chance I’m going to be taken from my girls while they’re very young.”

There’s currently no known cure for ALS, and most people die from being unable to breathe on their own, usually within three to five years of symptoms first appearing, according to NIH. Approximately 10 percent of people diagnosed with ALS survive for 10 years or more.

Sawyer had teased the second part of the interview, which aired on Tuesday, when she would speak with Dane and his doctor, Dr. Merit Cudkowicz, the executive director at Massachusetts General Brigham Neuroscience Institute.

“It’s a hard diagnosis to hear, but I want them to hear that there’s hope,” said Cudkowiczm, speaking to others with ALS, which she said affects 5,000 people per year and is a number that is rising too quickly. “I never want anyone to hear that there’s nothing to do because there’s a lot to do.”

Cudkowiczm said it’s predicted by 2040 that the numbers of people with ALS worldwide will increase at least 40 percent, due to the aging population and environmental factors including plastics, bacteria in lakes, pesticides, being in the military and head trauma. She also spoke about a new breakthrough drug that has been showing improvements in clinical testing.

Dane, who doesn’t qualify for that trial per gene testing, is taking medication to slow down the symptoms and participating in a different research study. “I will fly to Germany and eat the head off a rattlesnake if she told me that will help,” said Dane, with a smile, of being open to trying anything to combat the disease.

The Ice Bucket Challenge that went viral starting in 2014 has raised $200 million for U.S. research.

“I’m pretty hopeful,” closed Dane. “In my heart, I don’t feel like this is the end of me.”

— Jackie Strause contributed to this story.

This story first posted on June 16 at 5:58 am PT and was updated on June 17 at 6:30 a.m. with Dane’s Tuesday interview on GMA.

Best of The Hollywood Reporter

Sign up for THR’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

STATESBORO – Georgia Southern placed five student-athletes on the 2025 Collegiate Sports Communicators Women’s At-Large Academic All-District teams, as announced by the organization Tuesday afternoon. 

To be eligible for CSC Academic All-District honors, student-athletes must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.50 cumulative GPA at their institution. They must also be at least a sophomore academically. Each school is allowed six male and six female honorees for the all-district team based on academic and athletic merit in the sports of men’s and women’s fencing, men’s golf, men’s gymnastics, men’s ice hockey, men’s lacrosse, men’s rifle, men’s skiing, men’s volleyball, men’s water polo, men’s wrestling, women’s beach volleyball, women’s bowling, women’s crew/rowing, women’s fencing, women’s field hockey, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, women’s ice hockey, women’s lacrosse, women’s rifle, women’s skiing and women’s water polo.

The five honorees are: rifle athlete Bremen Butler, rifle athlete Ella Goldfaden, rifle athlete Zahra Gonzalez Mazo, rifle athlete Emma Pohlmann, women’s golf athlete Drive Tunwannarux.

For Pohlmann, it’s her second all-district recognition while it’s the first for the other four.

Butler, Goldfaden, Gonzalez Mazo and Pohlmann will advance to national balloting for possible Academic All-America honors. Only student-athletes who were all-conference, earned All-America honors or were players of the year in their respective conferences advance to the national ballot.