Francis Marion University athletic officials recently announced the names of 14 Patriot student-athletes named to the university's chapter of Chi Alpha Sigma, the National College Athlete Honor Society.

To earn a place in this honor society, a student-athlete must be at least a junior academically, have a 3.40 cumulative grade point average on a 4.00 scale, and have an endorsement from his or her respective head coach.  The nominees are then screened by a selection committee.

The 2022 inductees are baseball players Harrison Bigham (Florence, SC), Evan Jackson (Florence, SC), and Aleksandr Jergensen (Arvada, CO); women's tennis player Gabriel Karatantcheva (Sofia, Bulgaria); men's basketball player Jarrod Woodland (Florence, SC); women's soccer players Valentina Restrepo (Medellin, Colombia), Makayla Willets (Mastic, NY), and Ellie Wray (Charlottesville, VA); men's soccer players Javier Bello (Madrid, Spain), John Castro (Bogota, Colombia), and Alvaro Zamora (Madrid, Spain); and softball players Rachel Davis (Mechanicsville, VA), Sarah Harkins (Waxhaw, NC), and Savana Rosson (Gilbert, SC).

Twelve current Patriot student-athletes were previously inducted: baseball player JD Bailey; golfers Pierre De Caevel, Grainger Howle, and Michael Rials; women's soccer players Anna Capra and Rachael Hennenkamp; volleyball players Kayla Arthur, Alyssa Hansen, and Lily Walton; women's tennis player Hermon Mikael; and softball players Janecia Hemingway and Ashtyn Patterson.

Chi Alpha Sigma was founded in May 1996 by DePauw University head football coach Nick Mourouzis.  The organization currently has 309 chapters in 43 states and the District of Columbia.  Francis Marion is one of only five chapters in South Carolina, and FMU was the first school to have a chapter in the Palmetto State.

Over the past 22 years, 241 different FMU student-athletes have earned this honor.

Chi Alpha Sigma's purposes are: to encourage and reward high academic scholarship of college athletes at four-year accredited institutions; to recognize outstanding academic achievement by intercollegiate varsity letterwinners; to encourage good citizenship, moral character, and friendship among the high academic achievers in college athletics; to recognize and honor the individual athlete, his/her team, sport, athletic department, and college or university; and to mentor and to provide leadership to other athletes.