LEXINGTON, Ky. – Thirty-three current and former Wildcat student-athletes from 10 University of Kentucky teams are on track to graduate Friday.

The University of Kentucky’s December Commencement ceremonies will be held at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center on this schedule https://commencement.uky.edu/december-2024. Adding the 122 student-athletes who graduated in May, UK Athletics is expected to have 155 graduates during the 2024 calendar year alone.

Along with 31 student-athletes who are currently competing or recently completed eligibility, former UK baseball star Tristan Pompey and women’s basketball alumna Vonda Young are expected to graduate after finishing their undergraduate work as part of UK Athletics’ Cawood Ledford Post-Eligibility program.

Through the Cawood Ledford Post-Eligibility Program, UK Athletics pays for tuition and books for scholarship student-athletes who return to school after completing their eligibility. Since its inception in 1989, more than 150 Wildcats have returned to graduate through the program.

Two Wildcats, Samuel Anaele from football and JJ Mercer from men’s tennis, are completing master’s degrees.

Five of the athletes have earned all-conference honors during their careers, including Emma Grome, Logan Dorsey, Martin Soereide, Grace Phillpotts and Mercer, who earned All-America distinction as well.

Below is the complete list of expected graduates:
+ Tristan Pompey – Baseball
Patrick Herrera – Baseball
Tre’vonn Rybka – Football
Darrion Henry-Young – Football
* Samuel Anaele – Football
Gerald Mincey – Football
Jase Bruner – Football
DeaMonte “Chip” Trayanum – Football
Jager Burton – Football
Keeshawn Silver – Football
Courtland Ford – Football
Benjamin Christman – Football
D’Eryk Jackson – Football
Ja’Mori Maclin – Football
Eli Cox – Football
Marques Cox – Football
Octavious Oxendine – Football
Kevin Watts – Men’s Golf
Christopher Layne – Men’s Swimming
Logan Dorsey – Men’s Soccer
Martin Soereide – Men’s Soccer
Eoin Martin – Men’s Soccer
Nicholas Zielonka – Men’s Soccer
Theo Bachmann – Men’s Track & Field
Cassidy Rowe – Women’s Basketball
+ Vonda Young – Women’s Basketball
Mia Bookhard – Women’s Soccer
Tallulah Miller – Women’s Soccer
Grace Phillpotts – Women’s Soccer
Catherine Derosa – Women’s Soccer
Elsi Twombly – Women’s Soccer
Emma Grome – Women’s Volleyball
* JJ Mercer – Men’s Tennis
+ indicates graduating as part of the Post-Eligibility Program
* indicates graduating with a masters degree

Graduation marks yet another milestone of academic success for UK student-athletes. Guided by UK Athletics’ Student-Athlete Experience Division, Wildcat student-athletes have achieved a cumulative grade-point average of better than 3.0 in 24 consecutive semesters, with grades for the fall semester set to be finalized next week. Recently, UK tied the school record for its NCAA Graduation Success Rate of 92 percent, two points above the national average of 90 percent while all of UK’s teams surpassed the mandatory score for the NCAA Academic Progress Rate. UK’s overall APR rate was higher than the overall national average.