NEW ORLEANS – Coastal Carolina athletics had a total of five student-athletes across five different sports receive the Academic Excellence Award from the 1A Faculty Athletics Representatives, the Sun Belt Conference announced on Wednesday.
 
Receiving the award from Coastal Carolina were Aja Blount (women's basketball), Marcello Jones (men's soccer), Abbey Montoya (softball), Jerardo Perez (men's track & field), and Lina Perugini (volleyball).
 
A total of 73 student-athletes who competed at Sun Belt Conference institutions in 2021-22 received the Academic Excellence Award.
 
The award criteria includes: student-athletes at FBS football-sponsoring institutions who earned their undergraduate degrees between September 1, 2021, and August 31, 2022, and compiled a cumulative grade point average of 3.80 or better upon graduation. In addition, the student-athletes must have participated in at least two years of NCAA intercollegiate athletics at an FBS institution. 

The 1A Faculty Athletics Representatives (1A FAR) is an organization of faculty athletics representatives at NCAA Division 1 institutions in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The mission of 1A FAR is to advocate for effective interaction and academic and fiscal balance between an institution's academic mission and its intercollegiate program.
 
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