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Episode 14 is part two of a three-part series featuring our
2020-21 OVC Scholar-Athlete Award winners. The episode features Eastern Illinois distance runner
Jaime Marcos and Tennessee Tech volleyball outside hitter
Ali Verzani.
Marcos is a distance runner with the Eastern Illinois cross country and track and field programs. A year ago he earned first-team All-OVC honors by placing seventh at the OVC Championship and would go on to place 68th at the NCAA Midwest Championships. He was part of the 2020 OVC Indoor Track Championship squad (participating in the 3K and 5K events) and the 2019 OVC Outdoor Track Championship team (placing fifth in the 10K). In the classroom he has a 3.93 grade point average in kinesiology, sport and recreation with a minor in health promotion. Marcos has earned multiple OVC Academic Medal of Honor awards, is a six-time EIU Dean’s List selection, earned numerous academic scholarship awards, including the University Honors award. He is active with the EIU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), and Executive Board Member with the Phi Alpha Eta honorary fraternity and President of the Physical Education Club. Among his various volunteer activities is working with the Charleston Food Pantry.
Verzani is an outside hitter on the Tennessee Tech volleyball program. A year ago she earned first-team All-OVC honors after ranking third in the OVC and 96th nationally in kills per set and third in the OVC and 89th nationally in points per set. During her time with the Golden Eagles, the team has jumped 75 spots in the RPI and the team’s winning Conference record a year ago was the first for the program in the league since 2014. In the classroom she compiled a 4.0 grade point average in completing her degree in business administration with a minor in healthcare informatics; she is currently working on her Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) where she has also recorded a 4.0 GPA. She earned the OVC Academic Medal of Honor and been named to the OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll and the TTU Athletic Directors Honor Roll. She was selected for the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum, is a member of the TTU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), the OVC SAAC, the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and is an academic tutor for English, economics, finance, accounting and biology courses. She is also a member of the Chi Alpha Campus Ministry, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and volunteered at local elementary schools, the Cookeville Rescue Mission and assisted with the Putnam County tornado clean-up.
The duo will discuss many topics including how they each ended up at their respective schools, what motivates them to excel all-around, how they find time for extracirricular and volunteer activites, what they want to do after graduation and what makes their school is special.
About the OVC Extra Podcast
The OVC Extra Podcast is the official podcast of the Ohio Valley Conference and is currently available at OVCSports.com, Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio and Google Podcasts. Fans are encouraged to subscribe to follow the podcast and be alerted when new episodes are available.
Podcast Music
Open: "the lips of God" - urmymuse ((c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license)
Guest Intro: "a story" - Gizzard ((c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license)