VALDOSTA, Ga. – A total of five Valdosta State student-athletes earned 2025 Gulf South Conference Spring All-Academic, announced Thursday by the league office.  Softball graduate Aniston Gano, along with men's tennis seniors Boruch Skierkier and Takeshi Taco, along with women's tennis sophomore Natalie Rainke and men's golf sophomore Alexander Nilehn were honored.  
 
In addition, the 2025 GSC Spring Academic Honor Roll also was announced as VSU had 61 spring honorees who achieved a 3.0 cumulative grade-point average or better.  For the academic year, the Blazers had eight athletes earn All-Academic honors and 160 named to the GSC Academic Honor Roll.  
 
Click here for the release from the GSC for the spring all-academic awards.  Overall, 1,190 student-athletes from the GSC were named to the Academic Honor Roll and 88 earned All-Academic honors from the league.  A total of 107 student-athletes had a 4.0 grade-point average, while 667 had a 3.5 PGA or better and 367 had a 3.75 or higher.  

To achieve honor roll status, a GSC student-athlete must have a grade point average of 3.00 of better out of a possible 4.00 at the time the conference announces the award and have competed in outstanding competition–not counting exhibitions or scrimmages–during the season the award is presented.

As for the GSC All-Academic team, nominees must have a cumulative GPA of 3.20 or better their entire academic career at their institution and may not be a freshmen or first-term transfer. The student-athlete must also be a significant contributor to the team. Other factors include leadership, community service and extracurricular activities. Institutions are not allowed to vote for their own student-athletes. The number of student-athletes selected in each sport is determined by the number of positions normally involved in the playing of that sport. Ties are not broken. All-GSC Academic nominees are selected jointly by faculty athletic representatives and sports information directors from within the league. 

Gano, a native of Lakeland, Ga., earned NFCA Second Team All-America honors this season capping an outstanding career both in the classroom and on the field.  She was named Co-Gulf South Conference Player of the Year honors this season, named first team all-league and earned D2CCA First Team All-Region honors.   This season, Gano helped lead VSU to the GSC postseason tournament for the 35^th time in program history as the team finished 26-25 overall and went 19-13 in GSC play.  Gano finished the season hitting a team-best .393 on 57 of 145 from the dish in 51 starts at first base.  She scored 27 runs with three doubles and a team-best 17 home runs, while driving in 44.  Gano slugged .766 and reached base at a .527 clip with a team-high 38 walks and was hit by pitches four times. 
 
She reached base during the season in 27-straight games and recorded 15 multi-hit games with a season-best three hit games four times and has a team-high 14 multi-RBI games and drove in a season-best four RBI against Florida Southern (2/7).  Gano was named GSC Player of the Week twice and finished with 257 putouts with ten assists in 269 chances with two errors for a .993 fielding percentage.  She also helped turn five double plays.  
 
Nationally speaking, Gano finished 11^th in home runs (17), while she is 19^th in on base percentage (.527) to lead the GSC both categories.  She is 28^th nationally in slugging percentage (.766) for second in the league and is second in the GSC in total bases with 111.  She is 16^th nationally in walks per game at a 0.76 clip to lead the league. 
 
For her career, she finished second all-time in both GSC history and school history in home runs with 63, while she played in 205 games with a .338 career batting average, scored 120 runs with 200 hits, 21 doubles, three triples and drove in 194.  She finished with a career slugging percentage of .704 and reached base at a .453 clip.   
 
She earned NFCA All-America At-Large honors in 2024 coming off a season-ending injury in 2023.  She earned second team all-league honors last season and was a member of the GSC All-Tournament team.  She earned second team all-region by both the NFCA and D2CCA in 2024.  Gano earned Academic Honor Roll accolades in 2021, 2022, 2024 and now 2025, while earning GSC All-Academic for the first time.
 
Both Skierkier and Taco earned ITA All-America honors for the second-straight season as Taco was named All-America in both singles and doubles in 2025.  The duo helped lead VSU to back-to-back national titles and in 2024 and 2025, while the Blazers went a school-best 26-0 in 2025 and won 42-straight matches dating back to last season.  
 
Taco, a native of Lima, Peru, finished the season ranked No. 1 nationally in singles helping lead VSU to back-to-back national titles and the fourth national title in program history in 2025.  He earned Gulf South Conference Top Ten honors as the award recognizes the top female and top male student-athletes for their athletic, academic, and extracurricular achievements, during the 2024-25 academic year.  Taco finished with a 3.69 GPA in Applied Economics.  He also earned First Team Academic All-America honors as selected by College Sports Communicators (CSC). 
 
He earned first team all-GSC honors for the second-straight year, became the third Blazer to earn the Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship and Leadership Award presented by the ITA.  Taco was named the Herb and Linda Reinhard VSU Athletic Male Student-Athlete of the Year for 2024-25 and is ranked in the top five nationally in both singles and doubles. 
 
Taco finished his outstanding career at 57-6 in singles and 26-1 this year as he won the ITA Fall National Championship.  In doubles, he finished 39-13 in his two years and went 21-4 this season with Van Wijk.  Last season, Taco earned ITA All-America honors in singles.
 
Skierkier, a native of Clorinda, Formosa, Argentina, also earned first team all-league selection this season and last year.  Skierkier went 28-4 record in singles in 2024-25 as he finished sixth nationally for ITA All-America honors in back-to-back seasons.  For his career at VSU, he finished 58-5 in singles and 42-13 in doubles.  Skierkier finished with a 3.73 GPA in International Business and was named a third team Academic All-America honoree as selected by CSC.  
 
Rainke, a native of the Czech Republic, capped an outstanding sophomore season with ITA All-America honors as she went 15-7 in singles this season at the top spot in the lineup.  Rainke earned first team all-league honors for the second-straight year in 2025.  She had arguably her biggest win of her career on Apr. 9, 2025, when she upset No. 2-ranked Dana Heimen of Flagler College 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-2 as the Blazers upset the No. 4-ranked Saints.  Rainke is 25-19 in singles for her career and 26-21 in doubles. 
 
She became the 24^th All-America selection for the women's tennis team and the first for the women's program since Bea Morales in 2017.  For Hansen's career he has over 90 All-America honorees between the two programs.   
 
Nilehn, a native of Goteborg, Sweden, earned second team all-GSC honors this season and became the first Blazer to earn all-conference accolades since former Blazers Wesley Hanson and Chase Weathers earned second team honors in 2021.  

This season, Nilehn finished with a 73.67 stroke average for the season in 27 rounds.  He finished with 22 rounds in the 70s and five in the 60s this season, including a season-best 67 in the second round of the Bobcat Invitational where he finished a season-best T-4^th with a 1-under 209 score.  
 
For his career, he has played in 19 tournaments for 4,072 strokes and 55 rounds for a 74.03 stroke average.  He has 45 rounds in the 70s and eight in the 60s.  He earned GSC Academic Honor Roll and named GSC Freshman of the Week once last season.