Skip Ivery
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - Wittenberg University track and field standout Skip Ivery has been recognized for his athletic and academic accomplishments with first-team CoSIDA Academic All-America College Division Track and Field/Cross Country honors. It is Ivery's first appearance on the Academic All-America first-team designation after earning second-team honors a year ago.
Ivery, who graduated in May with a degree in management and will attend the University of Cincinnati Law School in the fall, finished his career with four academic all-district honors - two each in football and track and field. A native of Columbus and the former valedictorian of Groveport-Madison High School, Ivery accumulated a 3.80 grade point average at Wittenberg.
Ivery earned four letters in football and four letters in track and field during his collegiate athletic career. He was a four-time All-America honoree in track and field, twice in the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships and twice in the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships. He placed second in the 55-meter hurdles at the 2003 indoor championships and fourth in the same event in 2004. He claimed Wittenberg's third individual national track and field title ever in 2003 when he won the 110-meter hurdles at the outdoor championships, and he followed that with seventh place in 2004. He won four North Coast Athletic Conference indoor hurdles titles and three NCAC outdoor hurdles titles in his career, and he was the Great Lakes Region Indoor Track Athlete of the Year in 2004. He was also the NCAC Sprinter/Hurdler of the Year at both the indoor and outdoor championship meets in 2004.
Ivery also set plenty of records on the football field. A three-year starter at wide receiver, Ivery played on teams that posted a four-year record of 41-7, won two NCAC championships and advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament three times. He was named first-team All-NCAC twice, and he ranks in the top five in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.
Ivery's academic resume includes the Broadwell Chinn Award, earned last spring as the African-American student with the best G.P.A., and Wittenberg's Woodrow Wilson Prize for Academic Excellence in Management Award. He was also one of 1,000 students nationwide who were awarded scholarships in 2000 from a foundation created by Bill Gates, president of Microsoft Corp., making him Wittenberg's first and only Gates Millennium Scholar. He is also a recipient of a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
Written By: Ryan Maurer