Three individuals and two teams highlight outstanding class.
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by Fulton Sun Staff
FULTON, Mo. --With a total of 10 NAIA All-American honors, 10 American Midwest Conference team championships and two AMC individual championships among them, the William Woods University Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2024 is among the most-decorated group of inductees to join the hall to date. Three individuals --Jodie Peaco*ck (women's golf), Alex Cann (baseball) and Ana Houston (women's track and field) --and two teams --2016-17 women's tennis and 2013-14 men's 4x400-meter relay --were announced Wednesday by Steve Wilson, WWU vice president for student engagement and intercollegiate athletics. The 2024 class will be officially inducted into the WWU Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 25 as part of William Woods' first-ever Homecoming weekend.
"We are thrilled to celebrate the three individuals and two teams that are the 2024 representation of our rich athletic tradition at William Woods University," Wilson said in a release. "I'm even more excited to enhance the way that we will highlight these worthy inductees, making the event larger and incorporating it in to the first-ever Homecoming weekend at The Woods. These inductees will take their rightful place in William Woods University history, and it's an honor to pay tribute to their accomplishments in October."
Peaco*ck finished her career as a three-time NAIA All-American, helping Woods to four consecutive NAIA women's golf national championships and back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2015-16. She ranks third in career birdies (130) for William Woods and seventh in career tournament wins with five. Among her tournament wins is the 2014 AMC championship, where she finished tied for first with teammate and 2020 WWU athletics Hall of Fame inductee Jamie Palermo. Peaco*ck finished in the top 20 individual GolfStat rankings each of her final three seasons, earning a ninth-place individual finish in the 2016 NAIA Women's Golf Championship. She was also part of the best team round in school history, a 282 (6-under par) at the 2014 Eagle Open, which was, at the time, the best team score in NAIA history.
Cann played two years for William Woods as a transfer from San Diego City College and immediately made an impact on the mound. He broke the single-season record for saves, recording 12 during the 2011 season, helping Woods to its first-ever AMC tournament championship and a bid in the 2011 NAIA national championship opening round. Cann is tied for first on the single-season saves list and ranks third on the career list with 16, and helped Woods to a 2-2 record in the 2011 opening round. In addition to earning first-team All-AMC honors, he was named a 2011 NAIA first-team All-American, the first Owl to earn the accolade. After signing with the Florence Freedom as a free agent and playing the 2011 season, he returned to Woods as a graduate assistant, helping the team to a 65-36 record across two seasons.
One of two teams inducted in the WWU Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2024, the 2016-17 William Woods women's tennis team finished the season ranked No. 3 in the nation with a 14-10 overall record, including wins over NCAA Division II opponents Lindenwood University and Rockhurst University. The second-year team swept to a 3-0 championship in the AMC/Heart of America qualifying tournament, losing just one match. Woods swept the podium at the ITA fall regionals, with the pairing of Chelsea Steward and Julia Muller winning the all-WWU final over Zlata Shuraeva and Alba Salinas, who downed Owls teammates Paige Smith and Karyna Sagalai in the semifinals. Woods finished the season ranked No. 3 as a team in the Oracle/ITA NAIA women's collegiate rankings, with four players (Sagalai - 15, Shuraeva - 26, Salinas - 42 and Felicia Cesar - 49) finishing the year ranked among the top 50 singles players. Mulder and Steward (No. 8) were joined by Shuraeva and Salinas (No. 24) among the top 25 doubles pairings.
The second team recognized in the WWU Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2024 demonstrated dominance across two full seasons, claiming three NAIA All-American nods in the men's 4x400-meter relay. The team of Terrell Shannon, Nick Zink, Rhett Cook and Tanner Edwards finished sixth in the 2013 NAIA men's outdoor track and field championship with a time of 3 minutes and 11.79 seconds, trimming three seconds off their qualifying mark. The foursome repeated the feat twice in 2014, qualifying for the 2014 NAIA Men's Indoor Track and Field Championship and earning a fifth-place finish (3:15.79) and backing up the mark with a qualification and fourth-place finish in the 2014 NAIA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship, hitting a time of 3:12.83. Their 2013 mark is still the fastest time in the WWU record book, and the group still holds three of the top five slots. The team of Shannon, Zink, Cook and Edwards collectively earned 19 AMC event golds along with eight individual NAIA qualifications, with Shannon also earning All-American accolades with his third-place finish in the 600 meters at the 2010 NAIA Men's Indoor Track and Field Championship.
Anna Houston is the final member of the WWU Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2024, earning enshrinement after a career that includes three NAIA All-American honors --pentathlon 2016, 2017; heptathlon 2017 --and eight qualifying marks for the NAIA Women's Track and Field Championships and back-to-back titles in the 2016 and 2017 AMC Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Houston qualified for the NAIA Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships all four years of her career, hitting the point mark in the pentathlon 2016-18, along with individual marks in the 2016 triple jump and 2019 high jump. She earned back-t0-back All-American honors in the pentathlon, finishing eighth in 2016 and fifth in 2017. Houston also earned back-to-back qualifications in the heptathlon for the 2016-17 NAIA Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships, finishing second in 2017 with a career-best 4,861 points, the WWU record. She also holds the top spot in the pentathlon with her 2018 total of 3,306 in the AMC Women's Indoor Track and Field Championship.
Each of these inductees will be recognized as part of the inaugural Homecoming weekend celebration at William Woods. Tickets for the 2024 WWU Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Dinner and Auction are on sale, with the newly-reimagined event designed to elevate the experience to reflect better the outstanding impact our honorees have had for Owls Athletics.
