The Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee elected new leadership during its virtual NCAA Convention meeting last week.
John Michael Etheridge was elected as vice chair for a one-year term. A baseball student-athlete at Kentucky State University, Ethridge has served as the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) representative and is entering his third and final year on Division II SAAC.
Mackenzie O’Neill was elected as chair for a one-year term. O’Neill will be joined on the Division II SAAC Executive Board by three others. John Michael Etheridge, a baseball player at Kentucky State, was elected vice chair. Southern New Hampshire’s Kate Pigsley (field hockey) was reelected as the committee’s internal operations coordinator, and Purdue Northwest’s Ismael Contreras (men’s soccer) will serve as the external communications coordinator.
Ethridge will represent the SAAC committee on the Division II Legislation Committee. He will be responsible for supervising the distribution and compilation of legislative grids and feedback to all SAAC representatives within Division II.
"It has been a true honor to represent my institution and conference on Division II SAAC," said Ethridge. "I am forever grateful for the growth and the opportunities I have experienced throughout my term."
“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to serve in this leadership role for such a distinguished group of student-athletes across Division II,” O’Neill said. “I have full faith in this newly elected DII SAAC Executive Board and am excited for the work ahead of us this year as national SAAC.”
Additionally, Division II SAAC elected its two representatives to serve on the Division II Management Council. For the second year in a row, Madeleine McKenna, a women’s volleyball player at California University of Pennsylvania, and Braydon Kubat, a men’s track and field and cross country athlete at Minnesota Duluth, were chosen to serve on the council along with athletics directors, senior woman administrators, faculty athletics representatives and conference administrators.
Learn more about Division II SAAC, its members and the work they do at
their page on ncaa.org.
About the SIAC
The SIAC is a NCAA athletic conference consisting primarily of historically black colleges and universities with headquarters in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The SIAC includes 14 member institutions (Albany State University, Allen University, Benedict College, Central State University, Clark Atlanta University, Fort Valley State University, Kentucky State University, Lane College, LeMoyne-Owen College, Miles College, Morehouse College, Savannah State University, Spring Hill College, and Tuskegee University), which are located within a contiguous six-state footprint (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio). The SIAC sponsors seven men's and six women's sports and is a proud member of the NCAA Division II. For more information, visit
www.thesiac.com.