Twelve Mizzou spring-sports seniors will return for extra year of eligibility in 2021
Of 21 Missouri spring sports student-athletes eligible for an additional year of competition, at least 12 are returning for their senior seasons, the school announced Wednesday.
When the NCAA shut down winter and spring championships because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it wiped out the majority of the season for spring sports student-athletes. As a result, the NCAA Division I Council voted March 30 to allow an additional year of eligibility for spring-sports athletes.
A dozen athletes spanning six different sports will return. One student-athlete is still weighing the options, while another transferred to a different school. The remaining seven seniors will be leaving MU and moving on with life.
Four returners are members of the baseball team. One plays men’s golf, another women’s golf. Two play women’s tennis, two compete in men’s track and field and two participate in women’s track and field.
Mizzou allowed all 21 athletes the opportunity to return. Some seniors at other institutions weren’t as fortunate. Wisconsin, for instance, said its seniors wouldn’t be allowed to use the extra year of eligibility.
In early April, Mizzou estimated it would cost the university about $463,000 if every senior returned and was given the same amount of financial aid received in 2019-20. For an athletic department in the red for the third straight fiscal year and now dealing with financial fallout from the pandemic, this was another obstacle to work through.
Mizzou athletic director Jim Sterk said the school would find a way to ensure eligible seniors who wanted to return could do so.
“We look forward to watching these Mizzou student-athletes who had their 2020 spring seasons cut short by COVID-19 returning to finish out their collegiate careers the right way next spring,” Sterk said in a news release. “The NCAA made the right decision for these young men and women to receive their year back, and I’m grateful that several of them have elected to take advantage of this opportunity.
“We wish those moving on from Mizzou great success as they enter the next chapter of their lives.”
Here are the 12 student-athletes returning:
Art Joven (baseball)
Spencer Juergens (baseball)
Lukas Veinbergs (baseball)
Peter Zimmermann (baseball)
Rory Franssen (men’s golf)
Jessica Yuen (women’s golf)
Gabrielle Goldin (women’s tennis)
Serena Nash (women’s tennis)
Thomas George (men’s track and field)
Caulin Graves (men’s track and field)
Jordan McClendon (women’s track and field)
Karissa Roman (women’s track and field)