Submitted by The Evergreen State College
Jalyn Sackrider (Sr., F/C) and Sydney VanNess (Sr., G/F) have been named Academic All-District in NAIA women’s basketball for the 2024-25 season by the College Sports Communicators (CSC). Sackrider also was selected for the national ballot for Academic All-America.
“Sydney and Jalyn displayed exceptional examples of great leadership and being student-athletes,” Evergreen Head Women’s Basketball Coach Derrick Pringle said. “To be able to manage their studies, and practice, and maintain high academics, was a blueprint for their teammates to follow. It shows that if you put discipline to something you can accomplish anything.”
CSC Academic All-District honorees needed a 3.5 cumulative grade point average or higher and were required to be at least a sophomore academically and in terms of eligibility. In addition, qualifying student-athletes must have competed in at least 90% of the games played by their teams or have started in 66% of the games. Evergreen does not give letter grades, but the academic accomplishments of the nominated student-athletes were converted to a 4.0 GPA scale.
Sackrider’s academic focus is Elementary Education. She is from Elma, Washington, and attended Elma High School. She was recently named First Team All-Cascade Collegiate Conference and Co-Defensive Player of the Year.
This season, Sackrider averaged 12.8 points per game to rank 11th in the CCC in scoring. She led the CCC with 2.8 blocked shots per game and was third with 8.9 rebounds per contest. She started all 25 games and was named CCC Defensive Player of the Week twice.
Sackrider scored 957 career points in four years at Evergreen to rank fifth all-time for the Geoducks. She played in 95 games with 93 starts. She set the school career record with 189 blocked shots and was second all-time with 730 rebounds. She also set an Evergreen record with 71 blocked shots this season.
VanNess is focused on Business as her academic interest at Evergreen. She is from Lake Forest Park, Washington, and went to Shorecrest High School. She transferred to Evergreen from Everett Community College. She was chosen Honorable Mention All-CCC this season.
While starting all 25 games this year, VanNess averaged a team-high 13.3 points per game to rank ninth in the CCC in scoring. She also provided the Geoducks with 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. She made 78.8% of her free throws (52 of 66) to rank fifth in the conference. She was selected CCC Offensive Player of the Week once.
During three seasons at Evergreen, VanNess scored 951 points to rank sixth on the Geoducks’ all-time scoring list. She saw action in 71 games, including 59 starts. She finished her career with 417 rebounds (5.9 avg.), 125 assists, and 72 steals. She hit 108 career 3-point shots with a high of 39 in 2023-24 and 38 this year.
