by Olivia Dowell, Sun Devil Communications Intern
Many Sun Devil student-athletes across various sports completing different degree programs make up this year's list of current Sun Devil graduate student-athletes. Below is a list of those athletes with ASU degrees who are competing in the 2022-23 season.
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Yannira Acuña, Softball, BA Liberal Studies, 2022
As last year's leader in hits, runs, doubles and batting average, Acuña returns to the Sun Devils in 2023 after earning her bachelor's degree in Liberal Studies. Llast year, she set career highs in hits (64), runs (63), home runs (14), doubles (19), RBIs (43), and batting average (.430). She was one of three players to start in all 54 games and to be named to the Pac-12 All-Conference First-Team. She was also named Pac-12 Player of the Week on March 28, her first career honor, to the NFCA All-America second-team and the Co-SIDA Academic All-America Third Team.
LET THEM COOK ??????
— Sun Devil Softball (@ASUSoftball) January 10, 2023
Yanni and Jaz check in at #19 and #50 @D1Softball Preseason Top 100 Player Rankings#ForksUp /// #O2V pic.twitter.com/QbQQhxHMot
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Katie Brodsky, Lacrosse BS Clinical Exercise Science, 2022
Brodsky will play her final season with ASU in the spring and is pursuing a master's degree in Family and Human Development. She finished the 2022 season with 21 goals and matched her career high in goals for a single with 4 in a game at Colorado. She also had 25 assists last season and had 46 points. The season before in 2021, she had a career-high six points against Cal in the Pac-12 Tournament and racked up 30 goals that season scoring on 51.7 percent of shots. Additionally, she was named to the 2022 and the 2021 IWLCA Division I Academic Honor Roll
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Kaylon Buckner, Lacrosse, BS Business Entrepreneurship, 2022
The St. Louis native was a prominent factor on the circle for Sun Devil Lacrosse and is pursuing her master's degree in Digital Audience Strategy as she drew 41 draw controls on the season last season and had a career-high of nine in a win over Cal. She recorded 17 points with 12 goals and five assists and will return for a final season with the Sun Devils this spring. In the three seasons prior, Buckner saw action in all games for ASU and had 37 career starts in that time. As a junior, she was also named to the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll and was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week as a freshman in 2019.
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Cody Bybee, Men's Swimming, BS Management, 2022
Bybee returned to the pool for the Sun Devils this season where he most recently placed third in both the 400 free relay and 200 free relay and placed in the top-10 in four other events at the midseason NC State Invite on Nov. 17-19. Last season, he helped the Sun Devils reach their highest finish at NCAA Championships since 1982-83 in sixth place and finished second in the 400 free relay and in the top-10 in the 200 medley relay, 200 free relay and 400 medley relay. In his sophomore year, he was named a CSCAA All-American in the 100 fly, 200 free relay, 400 free relay, 800 free relay, 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay as well as to the Pac-12 Winter Sports Honor Roll. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in Applied Leadership and Management.
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Brandon Courtney, Wrestling, BA Interdisciplinary Studies, 2022
In his redshirt junior season with ASU, Courtney finished his season sixth in the 125 weight class at NCAAs to earn All-America honors again after receiving recognition the two seasons prior. Also last year, Courtney received recognition for his work in the classroom as he was named a 2022 NWCA Scholar All-American. In the 2020-21 season, he notched six wins over 2021 NCAA Championship qualifiers, including three-time NCAA qualifier Taylor LaMont from Utah Valley. Also that season, he won in the 125 weight class at the Pac-12 Championships and was runner-up at NCAA Championships.
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Alexia Delgado Alvarado, Soccer, BA Business (Sports Business), 2021
Delgado, a Nayarit, Mexico native, earned her degree in Sports Business in December 2021 and recently graduated this past December with a master's degree in Organizational Leadership. She came to not be known not only for her outstanding play, but also her leadership as the team's captain. With her 75 starts, she finished with 11 goals and 16 assists for 38 points. Outside of ASU, Delgado has been a member of the Mexican National Team since 2019.
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Nicole Douglas, Soccer, BS Interdisciplinary Studies (Nutrition & Healthy Living / Wellness Foundations), 2021
Douglas made history for Sun Devil Soccer as she became the first became the first player in program history to become a two-time All-American as United Soccer Coaches announced its 2022 NCAA Division I Women's All-Americans on Dec. 2. In her five years with the Sun Devils, she is the program's all-time career leader in goals (60), points (140) & game-winning goals (18). She was named the 2022 Pac-12 Forward of the Year and earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors. She earned her undergraduate degree in BA Interdisciplinary Studies (Wellness & Nutrition and Health Living) in December 2021 and graduated December 2022 with her master's degree in Higher & Postsecond Ed.
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Ralph Frias, Football, Interdisciplinary Studies, 2022
Frias saw action in all games for the Sun Devils this season as the Safford, Ariz. native is pursuing a master's degree in Organizational Leadership. He was sidelined in the 2021 season for health reasons, and saw action in all four games in the 2020 and 11 games of the 2019 season on special teams and as a reserve offensive lineman. He redshirted the season in his true freshman season in 2018, but saw his first career action in the Las Vegas Bowl without affecting his eligibility.
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Alijah Gammage, Football, BS Liberal Studies, 2022
Gammage was a former walk-on who earned a scholarship prior to this past season, like his brother Fred Gammage did several years ago. Throughout his four seasons with the Sun Devils, Gammage saw action in 20 games, including seven this past season. Gammage made an impact in the later part of the 2021 season as he saw more action due to injuries in the secondary where he recorded a career-high five tackles against Arizona. At the end of the 2021 season, he was ASU's highest graded player on defense in the final three games of the regular season and the bowl game with a 76.7.
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Halle Harger, Softball, BS Health Science (Healthy Lifestyle Fit Science)
Harger comes into the 2023 season after starting 27 of 37 games in her redshirt senior season and had an excellent showing in the UCLA series where she had a hit in each game of the three-game series, including a double. Off the field, Harger will be a two-time Sun Devil as of December 2022 as she graduates with her master's degree in Communication. In her first two seasons with ASU in 2021 and 2020, she saw action in 40 games and in the shortened 2020 season, she had seven runs on eight hits including one double and seven RBIs, which led all non-starters.
F???GHT to make every day count ??https://t.co/nvMvUH8KFu
— Sun Devil Softball (@ASUSoftball) March 12, 2020
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Grant House, Men's Swimming, BS Clinical Exercise and Science, 2022
House is in his fifth year with the Sun Devils and is currently pursuing a master's in Sports Law and Business. Thus far in his graduate season with ASU, he picked up six wins at the midseason NC State Invite on Nov. 17-19, which included the 200 free relay, 400 free relay, 800 free relay, 200 medley relay, 400 medley relay and 200 free. House has also received recognitions for his academic achievements throughout his career, including being named a CSCAA First-Team Scholar All-American and to the CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team, becoming the third Sun Devil in Men's program history and the first since 1992. He helped ASU place sixth in team standings at the NCAA Championships for their highest finish since 1982 by taking second in both the 200 free and the 400 free relay.
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Demetrios Koumontzis, Ice Hockey, BS Communication
Returning from a season ending injury last season, Koutmontzsis returns to Sun Devil Hockey pursuing a master's degree in Legal Studies. So far, he has four goals and three assists this season, including two goals in a win over Colorado College on Oct. 21. In his senior season last year, he scored the eventual game-winner against New Hampshire on Oct. 15 and finished the season with a plus-seven rating which ranked third on the team.
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Gordon Mason, Swimming, BA Psychology
Mason is pursuing a master's degree in Sports Law and Business at Arizona State after competing in his first Pac-12 Championship meet last season for the Sun Devils. At the Pac-12 Championships, he placed third in the 1650 free and 13th in the 500 free as Mason went on to compete in those two meets at the NCAA Championships to finish off the season. He was also recognized academically as a CSCAA First-Team Scholar All-American.
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Michael Matus, Football, BS Supply Chain Management, 2022
Matus, a defensive end for the Sun Devils, made an impact throughout his career as a Sun Devil. In the 2021 season, he was a starter in 10 games and finished the season as the 11th-highest graded end on run defense in the Pac-12 for the season. He finished last season with 5.5 tackles for loss and 28 total tackles with one fumble recovery and had a career-high five tackles against Washington State. After redshirting his freshman season in 2018, Matus was ranked the 17th-highest tackling grade in the Pac-12 among edge defenders by PFF at 74.5.
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Michael McGee, Wrestling, BA Liberal Studies, 2022
In the early part of this season, McGee has had an excellent beginning to his season where McGee most recently finished as the 133 runner-up at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. Last season, he received 2022 All-American honors for his fourth place finish in the NCAA Championships, was the 2022 Pac-12 Champion and also was named to the Pac-12 Winter Academic Honor Roll. In his first season with the Sun Devils in 2020-21, he placed third at the Pac-12 Championships and was seeded No. 9 for NCAA Tournament competition.
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Maddie McLaughlin, Volleyball, BS Psychology, 2022
McLaughlin, who is pursuing a master's in Psychology, just finished competition in the 2022 season for the Sun Devils where she saw action in 29 sets as a blocking sub. She added two kills and a block in a five set win over Dayton, a team who made it to the NCAA Tournament the year prior. As a senior in 2021, she was recognized for her academic achievements on the Pac-12 2021 Fall Academic Honor Roll. After playing her first two seasons at SUNY Geneseo, McLaughlin first played for ASU in the 2020-21 season where she played in 39 sets and earned a career-high eight kills in a match against Washington State. She led all hitters that season with a .280 hitting percentage.
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Luther Muhammad, Men's Basketball, BS Sociology, 2022
The Newark, N.J. native has seen action in all of Sun Devil Men's Basketball games so far this season and just graduated back in December, and had a season-high 13 points in an upset of then-No. 20 Michigan. Muhammad came to ASU in the summer of 2020 after playing at Ohio State and sat out the 2020-21 season with a shoulder injury. He started in 11 games last season for ASU and appeared in 30 games and had a career high 15 points in a win on the road at Colorado.
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Ryan Moltz, Wrestling, BS Construction Management and Technology, 2022
Moltz became a Sun Devil alumni this past December graduating with his undergraduate degree. He has been recognized on the Pac-12 Academic Winter Honor Roll twice in 2022 and 2021. Moltz redshirted his first season with the Sun Devils and competed unattached at 165 lbs. at the Reno Tournament of Champions. In the 2020-21 season, he wrestled twice at the meet against Little Rock to make his college debut.
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Olivia Nguyen, Soccer, BS Biomedical Science, 2021
Nguyen, who played in her fifth season with the Sun Devils this year, contributed eight points for ASU this season and is pursuing a master's degree in Biology. As a senior in 2021, Nguyen, the Tempe native, went from playing in 24 games her first two seasons to starting 35 of her 37 games her junior and senior seasons. In 2021, she also had a single-season career highs in goals (seven), points (17) and game-winning goals (three) and finished second on the team in all three categories.
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Kordell Norfleet, Wrestling, BA Liberal Studies,
Norfleet is a four-time Pac-12 champion in the 184/197 weight class as he claimed an individual title from 2018-2022. Last season, Norfleet qualified for NCAAs at 197 lbs where he went 16-5 on the season. In his redshirt junior year in 2020-21, he claimed his third Pac-12 title and went undefeated in the regular season and went 4-2 in the postseason. Norfleet also made an impact in his first two seasons with the Sun Devils where he was a NWCA Second Team All-American in the 2019-20 season and became the 14th Sun Devil all-time and fourth consecutive ASU wrestler to be named Outstanding Wrestler at the Pac-12 Championship. As a true freshman in 2017-18, he was named Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Yea as just the third Sun Devil to earn the honor.
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John Olmsted, Men's Basketball, BA Business (Sports Business)
John Olmsted is a native to the Arizona area being from Morenci. After graduating with his undergraduate degree in sports business, Olmsted is also majoring in Strength and Conditioning while being here at ASU. He has played in more than 30 career games for the Sun Devils throughout his current four year collegiate career.
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Tautala Pesefa, Football, BA Liberal Studies, 2022
Pesefa saw action in all 12 games this season for Sun Devil Football and had 38 total tackles this season (18 solo and 20 assisted) and defended three passes. Last season as a redshirt junior, Pesefa was third among ASU's interior lineman with playing 340 snaps. In his first season with the Sun Devils in 2019, Pesefa established himself as an option up the middle as the season went on where he finished with 11 tackles in his sophomore season along with a tackle for loss.
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Marissa Schuld, Softball, BA Psychology, 2022
After completing her undergraduate degree in May 2022, Schuld returns to the Sun Devils for the 2023 season getting her master's degree in _____. In her first season with ASU last season, Schuld pitched the first perfect game since 2017 and the eighth perfect game in program history against Arizona. The Scottsdale native compiled the lowest ERA on the team with a 2.09 ERA and was honored with being on the All-Pac-12 Second Team. Additionally, she held an opposing batting average of .215, the best on the team in 2022 and allowed the least number of hits, runs, and earned runs among pitchers who pitched at least 87 innings.
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Domenika Turkovic, Women's Tennis, BS Psychology
Turkovic, from Zagreb, Croatia, spent all 25 matches last season on singles Court 2 and doubles Court 1 alongside Patricija Spaka. She went 10-for-12 in singles to become one of four Sun Devils to rack up double-digit wins in singles play and went 10-5 in doubles and was one of 32 duos selected to compete in the NCAA Doubles Championships. Turkovic and Spaka ended the season ranked as the No. 39 doubles team and as the No. 2 doubles team in the Southwest Region. Turkovic also received recognition academically last season as she was named to the Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll and was named an ITA Scholar Athlete.
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Eva van Deursen, Soccer, BS Kinesiology, 2021
van Deursen came back to Sun Devil Soccer for one final season where she saw action in all 18 games and finished the season that saw her team competing in the NCAA Tournament with seven goals, five assists and 19 points along with having two game winning goals throughout the season. In 2021, she set the program's single season assists record with 10 and finished first in the Pac-12 and ninth in the country in assists per game with 0.56. van Deursen was also named to the 2021 CoSIDA Academic All-District Women's Soccer Team, and joined her teammates Nicole Douglas and Alexia Delgado in graduating with masters degrees this past December as she graduated with her MS in Clinical Exercise Physiology.
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Turner Washington, Track and Field, BS Conservation Biology, 2020
Washington, a Tucson native, is currently pursuing his master's degree in Sports Law and Business that he started in the fall of 2021. In the 2022 outdoor season, Washington earned second place at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a season-best shot put throw of 21.05m and got 10th in discus also with a season-best throw of 58.33m. In addition to his competition at NCAAs, he was recognized for his academic achievements as a 2022 CoSIDA Academic All-American and CoSIDA XCTF Academic All-American Team Member of the Year. Earlier last season in indoor competition, Washington won his second consecutive NCAA indoor shot put crown and fourth total NCAA title at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships when he threw 21.65m/71-½.