February 5th, 2020 the Culver-Stockton College men’s basketball team took on Clarke University. 

Jerrid Cosby started the scoring for C-SC with the game’s first basket, but cold shooting doomed the Wildcats, losing their third straight home game, 75-57.  

At halftime,  fall sport tudent-athletes were recognized.  Nicholas Luciani, the senior goalkeeper for the men’s soccer team, set the school record for shutouts in a season and a career during his four-years at Culver-Stockton. Luciani set the season mark of six shutouts in 2018 and the career mark of 14 shutouts last fall, the latter having stood for 20 years.

His counterpart on the women’s soccer team, senior goalkeeper Kehley Bitzas, also set a school record for career shutout during her time at Culver-Stockton. Bitzas recorded 24 career shutouts through the past four years. She was an NAIA All-America pick in 2018 and a CoSIDA Academic All-America second team selection last fall. In addition, Bitzas was named the female recipient of the A.O. Duer Award from the NAIA, which is a national award given to a student-athlete who excels in scholarship, character and citizenship.

Football was represented with junior quarterback Korbin Marcum and offensive lineman Andrew Rupcich. Marcum was honored last fall as an honorable mention selection to the NAIA All-America team. A first team all-conference selection, he was sixth in the NAIA in total passing yards (3,113) and passing yards per game (283.0); and ninth in the NAIA in total offensive yards (3,034). Marcum completed 60.3 percent of his passes this season and threw for 26 touchdowns.

Junior offensive lineman Andrew Rupcich was named to the AFCA-NAIA All-America first team as well as the Associated Press All-America second team last fall.  Rupcich, a three-year starter is a two-time all-conference first-team selection, helped pave the way for one of the nation’s most prolific offensive passing attacks in the NAIA. The Wildcat offense finished the regular season ranked seventh in the NAIA in passing offense with 3,208 yards, and passing yards per game with 291.6 yards per contest. He also led a C-SC offensive line that allowed just 13 sacks this season, ranking fourteenth in the NAIA.  Rupcich also was honored with the Piesman Award last fall for the most outstanding play by play by an interior lineman in all levels of college football.