AUSTIN, Texas — Chelsey Cunningham has been named a Second Team Google Cloud Academic All-American at the designated player position by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) in recognition of her stellar work on the field and in the classroom.
Cunningham is Newberry’s 31st Academic All-American in school history and the third softball student-athlete to earn the distinction after Katey Satcher (2002) and Chelsie Hilbourn (2011). Luke Gibson of men’s basketball and baseball’s Danton Hyman earned Academic All-America recognition in their respective sports earlier this year.
Cunningham, who completed her junior year in 2019, has a sterling 4.0 GPA as a Biology major with a minor in Spanish. She is incredibly involved on campus as a member of Omicron Delta Kappa honor society, the National Society of Leadership and Success, Summerland Honors Program, and the Student Employee in the Office of Institutional Advancement. Cunningham also serves as the vice president of the Future Medical Professionals of America.
Cunningham is on course to graduate in December and has plans to work as an EMT to get hours towards applying and eventually attending graduate school in order to become a physician’s assistant.
“Chelsey is someone we’re all incredibly proud of and is deserving of this recognition,” Head Coach Ciria Triplett said. “She works hard every day on the field and in the classroom and represents our program well.”
On the field, Cunningham played in 33 games with 28 starts as Newberry’s designated player. She slugged .452 on 19 hits this season, ranking third on the team with five home runs and collecting four doubles. Her 22 RBI were the fourth-most on the team despite ranking eighth in at-bats. She also made 22 relief appearances in the circle, going 2-3 with a 4.74 ERA and 25 strikeouts.
She came up big for the Wolves in critical moments this season, hitting a walk-off home run against USC Aiken on Feb. 13 and a grand slam in the top of the seventh at Catawba on April 17 that had a big effect on the South Atlantic Conference standings.
Cunningham was one of four student-athletes to represent the SAC on the teams, joined by Mary Claire Coyne (Wingate, First Team), Abby Fiessinger (Carson-Newman, First Team), and Morgan Mahaffey (Tusculum, Second Team).