Lukas Winkelmann
Tusculum College men’s tennis student-athlete Lukas Winkelmann is this year’s recipient of the South Atlantic Conference Presidents Award, following a vote of the league’s Faculty Athletic Representatives.
Winkelmann is the male recipient of the SAC Presidents Award, while Newberry College volleyball player Elayni Stokes is this year’s female honoree.
The SAC Presidents Award is the most prestigious honor the conference awards to its student-athletes. It exemplifies the finest combined qualities of excellence in athletics, academics and community leadership. During the year, the league recognizes 18 Scholar Athletes, representing each of the conference-sponsored sports. The top male and female SAC Scholar Athletes from each represented member school are then nominated for the SAC Presidents Award.
In the classroom, Winkelmann sported a 3.96 cumulative grade point average as a pre-medicine major. The three-time SAC Men’s Tennis Scholar Athlete of the Year has earned selections to the Tusculum Athletic Director’s Honor Roll, the TC President’s List, the Charles Oliver Gray Honors List, the SAC Commissioner’s Honor Roll and the ITA All-Academic Team. He graduated from Tusculum last month with summa cum laude honors.
Winkelmann finished the season ranked 19th in the ITA singles rankings, becoming the first player in program history to garner All-America distinction. He also becomes only the ninth SAC singles player to earn ITA All-America honors, fifth during the NCAA II era (since 1994) and the first since 1996.
The Böblingen, Germany native spent most of the season ranked in the top-20 of the ITA/NCAA Division II national singles rankings, including as high as 10th this spring. He finished the season with a perfect 18-0 singles record at the top flight and finished his collegiate career with a 50-match regular season winning streak.
He was named the SAC Men’s Tennis Player of the Year for a third consecutive season, becoming the first three-time winner in league history. He also ended the year listed sixth in the ITA Southeast Region singles rankings.
On the doubles side, Lukas teamed with his brother Jonas as the duo compiled a perfect 19-0 record while earning All-SAC first team doubles honors in back-to-back seasons. The Winkelmann brothers also finished the year listed ninth in the ITA Southeast Region doubles rankings.
Winkelmann finished his collegiate-career with a 70-7 singles record and was a four-time All-SAC performer and was the SAC Freshman of the Year in 2012.
Winkelmann is a two-time Capital One Academic All-America® At-Large first team selection and is a national nominee again this year.
Winkelmann has served in numerous leadership roles, including as team captain and as a representative on the Pioneer Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
In the community, Winkelmann has served as a volunteer at a local hospital and has spent time with Project “Tennis in Schools” to promote the sport of tennis at area elementary schools. Winkelmann assisted in caring for a local community member’s horse after they were in a car accident during his sophomore season and has helped with the Tusculum Tennis Adopt-a-Family initiative to help a local family during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. A member of the Alpha Chi Honor Society, Winkelmann donated and delivered Christmas presents to children in the community.
Winkelmann has also stayed busy helping out on the Tusculum campus. He served as a volunteer with the Tusculum College Haunted House as a freshman to assist a TC athletic department fundraiser. During his senior year, Winkelmann volunteered with the Remote Area Medical Clinic hosted by Tusculum College as a dental assistant and was a member of the Biology Club and the President’s Society. Winkelmann also served as treasurer of Alpha Chi during his junior and senior years.
Winkelmann has been accepted to the Pennsylvania School of Medicine to continue his pursuit of becoming a dentist.
During his collegiate career, Winkelmann led the Pioneers to a combined 63-22 overall record, including 32-8 on South Atlantic Conference play.
He was named the 2014-15 Tusculum College Male Athlete of the Year, becoming the first three-time winner of the award in school history and only the second TC student-athlete overall to be named Athlete of the Year three times (woman’s basketball player Susan Starnes was a four-time winner).
This marks the seventh straight year and eighth of the last nine that a Tusculum student-athlete has garnered SAC Presidents Award honors. Tusculum’s 10 total SAC Presidents Award winners are the second most by one school and tied for the most since the College joined the league during the 1999-2000 academic year.
Past Tusculum honorees of the SAC Presidents Award include: Julie Maples (Women’s Basketball: 2004-05), Glen Black (Football: 2006-07), Jarrell NeSmith (Football: 2008-09, 2009-10), Simon Holzapfel (Men’s Cross Country: 2010-11), Taylor Rakes (Baseball: 2011-12, 2012-13) and Ashley Sarmiento (Volleyball: 2012-13, 2013-14).