INDIANAPOLIS – Fourteen student-athletes, representing seven Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) institutions, have been named as 2018-19 GLVC Winter and Spring Scholar-Athletes of the Year, it was announced by the Conference office on Friday. Recipients were honored for their efforts both in the classroom and competition in the sports of baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, men’s lacrosse, softball, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track & field, and wrestling.
The University of Indianapolis paced all league schools for the fourth year in a row with its five honorees, including
Oliver Mast (men’s golf),
Kennedy Holtsclaw (women’s golf),
Adam Rosipal (men’s swimming & diving),
Hanna Volikova (women’s tennis), and three-repeat honoree
Austin Hogan (men’s track and field). Lewis University, University of Southern Indiana, and Missouri S&T followed with two recipients each, including Flyers’ three-peat honoree
Jessica Kelliher (women’s basketball) and
Stephanie Palczynski (women’s swimming & diving), Miners’
Dalton Erger (baseball) and
Skyler Ruszkowski (women’s track and field), as well as Screaming Eagles’
Alex Stein (men’s basketball) and
Jennifer Leonhardt (softball). University of Illinois Springfield’s
Sam Clarke (men’s tennis), Maryville University’s
Tyler Kreith (wrestling), and Rockhurst University’s
Zach Bodeau (men’s lacrosse) rounded out the list.
The league selects one student-athlete in each Conference sport to be designated the GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The award is based upon athletic accomplishments, both team and individual, and academic performance in the season upon which the award is based. Each GLVC member has the opportunity to nominate one individual from its team for the award. Nominees must have a cumulative grade point average that meets Academic All-America standards (3.30), and freshmen and first-year transfers are not eligible for the award. The voting is completed by each member institution's Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR).
Baseball:
Erger, an All-GLVC first-team starting pitcher and March 18 Pitcher of the Week, becomes the program’s first Miner standout to be honored as the sport’s scholar-athlete. Athletically, the hurler started 13 of 14 games played and finished the season 7-5 with a 3.06 earned run average, striking out a team-best 74 hitters in 88.33 innings. Five of his seven wins came against GLVC foes with one other coming against then-No. 14 nationally ranked St. Cloud State. He was second in the league for innings pitched, ranked fifth for ERA, and was just outside the top five with 74 strikeouts. As a team, S&T went 30-17 overall with a 22-11 Conference mark to be named tri-Regular Season Champions. Academically, the Imperial, Missouri, native earned his Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences Summa Cum Laude with a 3.95 cumulative GPA after registering a perfect 4.0 to end his career with Dean’s List recognition. The unblemished mark earned Erger Google Cloud College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District honors.
Men's Basketball:
Stein is the first-ever Screaming Eagle to be named scholar-athlete in the sport, earning the accolade, in part, after a 3.5 GPA this past semester as a business administration graduate student and finishing his undergraduate studies in the fall with a 3.45 cumulative mark. Those successes in the classroom gleaned him Academic All-GLVC recognition, as well as, Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team and Academic All-America Third Team – the first in program history – after being named the league’s male student-athlete of the year with the GLVC Richard F. Scharf Paragon Award. The other half of his accomplishments leading to today’s honor came on the hardwood where the guard started all 35 games and led the league in minutes played (1217, 34.77 mpg), was second in scoring (20.9), and third in three-point field goal percentage (.459). His 203 free throws made ranked fourth in NCAA Division II, while his total minutes played was fifth in the division. The Evansville, Indiana, native scored a Southern Indiana single-season record 732 points and set a program standard for single-season and career (600) free throws made while also becoming the program’s all-time scoring leader with 2,219 points that he reached in the NCAA Final Four contest. In addition, he garnered First Team All-GLVC honors, First Team All-District status from the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) and the National Basketball Coaches Association (NABC) before picking up Honorable Mention All-America recognition from D2CCA and Division II Bulletin (DIIB), which followed preseason recognition as a DIIB and Street & Smith’s College Basketball All-American. In his swan song, Stein was three times named GLVC Player of the Week throughout the season and used his individual efforts for team success, as USI advanced to the D-II Elite Eight semifinals after winning the Midwest Region title, finishing with a 26-9 overall and 13-5 record in GLVC play.
Women's Basketball: Three-time GLVC Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete,
Kelliher finishes her Flyers career as the eighth selection for a Lewis player in the sport and second to earn the award three years in a row, as Mary Moskal did so from 2005-07. Along with this top league honor, the decorated forward also matched her league record with seven Player of the Week awards this season to accumulate a GLVC career-best 20 during her tenure. Additionally, she earned postseason awards in the form of First Team All-GLVC before winning All-America status by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA), and Division II Bulletin (DIIB). Moreover, the D2CCA honored Kelliher with the Ron Lenz National Player of the Year accolade and was named the GLVC Richard F. Scharf Paragon Award Winner as the Conference’s female athlete of the year. Statistically, she proved deserving of those laurels after becoming the school and GLVC all-time leading scorer with 2,764 points, pacing the league in scoring (24.3 ppg), field-goal percentage (.659), field goals made (307), and offensive rebounds per game (3.41) while second in rebounding (9.9 rpg). The 6-footer led NCAA Division II in field-goal percentage and was second in field goals made. Under the Waukesha, Wis., product’s leadership, the Flyers went 27-5 overall and 16-2 in the GLVC, including the team advancing to the GLVC championship tournament semifinals and NCAA Tournament for the seventh-straight year. The organizational communications major bolstered her 3.86 cumulative GPA with a near-perfect 3.93 mark this spring semester after a 4.0 in the fall, which helped her earn Academic All-GLVC honors, Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District and All-America First Team, as well as Team Member of the Year. She was a seven-time Dean’s List selection, won the Brother David Delahanty Award for academic excellence at Lewis and garnered the Senior Departmental award in Organizational Communication.
Men’s Golf:
Mast’s selection makes this the ninth time an Indianapolis golfer was named scholar-athlete and a back-to-back pick after Graham McAree was selected last season. The GLVC Region Player of the Year and Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) Division II PING All-Midwest pick made a statement in just his sophomore season, tying for individual medalist honors at the GLVC Championship but ultimately falling in a one-hole playoff, while the Greyhounds also finished second as a team at the postseason event. His individual runner-up finish matched the record for lowest 54-hole score (-7) at the Conference meet and qualified him for All-GLVC merits, while he was also named Player of the Week earlier in the season on March 28. Following the league tournament, UIndy and Mast competed in the NCAA Central/Midwest Regional where the Fortville, Indiana, native placed 14th. Before the postseason, he racked up nine top-10 finishes in 13 events and averaged a team-best 72.9 strokes per round and twice shot a season low of 67. Academically, the linksman has accrued a 3.69 GPA during his time studying business administration & management/pre-law with a nearly unblemished 3.90 this semester, while just the other day, he earned Academic All-GLVC honors.
Women’s Golf:
Holtsclaw makes it seven-straight and 10 overall honors for UIndy women’s golf, as teammate Katharina Keilich was most recently selected the sport’s scholar-athlete in both 2017 and 2018. At this year’s GLVC Championship, Holtsclaw finished tied for sixth to help UIndy win its record eighth consecutive and 13th overall title, while she was later voted All-GLVC. At the NCAA event, the senior improved upon her 30th-place finish in the East Regional – which helped her earn Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-Region honors – to score a tie for 22nd at the final site. The team made a semifinals appearance at Nationals, as Holtsclaw was the only Greyhound to win both match play pairings. Earlier in the season, she won the Ball State Cardinal Classic in September, earning Player of the Week honors, and the Laker Fall Invite two weeks later. Overall, the Bedford, Indiana, product averaged 76.6 strokes per round, good for second on the team, with a season-low 69 at the UIndy Invite in the fall. Perhaps more impressive is the fact that she was able to maintain a perfect 4.0 GPA this semester as a human resource management major with a business analytics minor, improving her overall mark to 3.99 that led to Academic All-GLVC and WGCA Academic All-America. Even more notable was her selection as the NCAA Elite 90 winner for D-II women’s golf at the National Championship.
Men’s Lacrosse:
Bodeau is just the second-ever scholar-athlete for the sport in its sophomore season of league sponsorship, while Rockhurst was in its first year under the GLVC lacrosse umbrella this spring. The GLVC Specialty Player of the Year and first-team All-GLVC pick led the league in faceoff winning percentage (.771) and ground balls per game (8.88), which were respectively second and eighth in NCAA D-II. He also picked up two Defensive Player of the Week awards throughout the season on February 4 and March 25. His efforts landed the Hawks a national ranking as high as No. 13 and also an appearance in the league’s title tilt, as the squad went 12-4 overall and 5-1 in Conference action. In the classroom, the midfielder boasts a perfect 4.0 GPA through three years as a criminal justice major, which helped him this year earn Rockhurst Dean’s List, Academic All-GLVC, and Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District and All-American.
Softball:
Leonhardt is the third Screaming Eagle scholar-athlete in the sport but the first pitcher chosen, as Kathy Wood (2007-08) and current assistant coach MacKenzi Dorsam (2014-15) were the first two honorees for the program. The biology major earned a 4.0 this semester, which elevated her cumulative mark to 3.76 and helped her nab Academic All-GLVC honors as well as Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District and All-American. While her studies are impressive, her work on the diamond is one of the best in the league. The junior was voted GLVC Pitcher of the Year and a unanimous All-GLVC first-team member after leading the loop in ERA (1.29), strikeouts (243), complete-game shutouts (13), hits allowed per game (4.71), and sac bunts (13). She was also second in opponent batting average (.187) and saves (four), while tied for fourth in sac flies (four). The hurler’s complete-game shutout mark ranked second in NCAA D-II, while her strikeouts (seventh) and ERA (ninth) ranked among the top-10 best in the nation. Offensively, Leonhardt also put up solid numbers, hitting .351 with 30 RBI, 11 doubles, a triple, a homer, and 17 sacrifices. All those numbers added up to more postseason accolades in the form of National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) and Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) First Team All-Midwest Region and Second Team All-America to go with USI records for all-time wins (76), strikeouts (711), and complete-game shutouts (33). Additionally, the native of Louisville, Kentucky, picked up three GLVC Pitcher of the Week laurels (Mar. 18; April 2, 8) and was named the NFCA National Pitcher of the Week on April 10.
Men’s Swimming and Diving:
Rosipal picks up this honor for the first time ever in UIndy program history after a breakout sophomore season that saw him set three school records (500 free, 4:23.23; 1000 free, 9:03.08; 1650 free, 15:06.39) and become a four-time All-America first-team honoree with a NCAA crown in the 1650-yard freestyle, a runner-up finish in the 1000 free, third place in the 500 free, and seventh in the 800 free relay. Beforehand, at the GLVC meet, he earned gold in the 1000 free, placed second in the 500 free, and was third in the 800 free relay. The Greyhounds repeated as GLVC Champions and were third at Nationals for the second year in a row. In addition, the distance swimmer collected two PNC GLVC Athlete of the Week accolades during the year on Oct. 12 and Nov. 21. The Bratsislava, Slavakia, product finished the spring semester with a 3.82 GPA and holds a 3.83 cumulative clip as a psychology/human biology major. He garnered Academic All-GLVC honors earlier in the week and is on track to collect College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-American Team honors.
Women’s Swimming and Diving:
Palczynski is Lewis’ first honoree in the sport after a successful postseason where she became a NCAA first-team All-American for placing seventh in the 200-yard backstroke, setting a new school record with her time of 2:00.00. She also competed at Nationals in the 100 back (56.39) and set another school standard in the 200-yard freestyle (1:50.39) in the event. At the GLVC Championship, the native of Warrenville, Illinois, touched third in the 200 back in a then-school record time, placed fifth in the 400 free relay, was sixth in the 100 back and 400 medley relay, and placed eighth in both the 200 free and 800 free relay. She also earned a PNC GLVC Athlete of the Week award Oct. 17. In the classroom, the human resource management major accumulated a 3.68 semester GPA to bump her cumulative mark to 3.58 and received Academic All-GLVC recognition and the Brother David Delahanty award, given to Flyers student-athletes for academic excellence.
Men's Tennis: With the selection of
Clarke, Illinois Springfield gets its first-ever scholar-athlete in school history since joining the league in 2008. He finished his career with a 19-4 singles record and was 13-9 in doubles play, both at No. 1, to set the school record for most wins in a career (127). A three-time GLVC Player of the Week (Feb. 19, March 6, 26) and All-GLVC selection, the Kendall, England, native was named the UIS Male Athlete of the Year and team MVP. The Prairie Stars went 13-5 during the spring campaign and 3-2 in East Division action, earning the No. 3E seed for the postseason event. Academically, he held a 3.91 overall GPA as a business administration major and secured an unblemished 4.0 during the 2018-19 year to earn the GLVC Council of Presidents’ Academic Excellence Award, the GLVC Brother James Gaffney Distinguished Scholar Award, Academic All-GLVC merits, and was the UIS Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. On top of that, he was honored with Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District and All-America honors as well as the Division II Athletic Directors of America (D2ADA) Academic Achievement Award.
Women's Tennis:
Volikova is the fourth UIndy honoree in the sport and first since 2017 when former teammate Florence Renard was selected. She exhausted her career with a 3.30 cumulative GPA after a 3.70 mark in the spring during her studies in sport management to earn her second consecutive Dean’s List selection and Academic All-GLVC. On the court, the Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine, native was almost perfect in No. 1 singles and No. 2 doubles play with a 21-1 and 20-1 record, respectively. The sixth-ranked Greyhounds squad completed their best season in program history, going unbeaten at 24-1 through the entire regular season and postseason, shutting out 17 opponents and closing the season with 12 consecutive blankings up until making their appearance in the National semis with a loss against the top-ranked team in the nation, Lynn. Before that, UIndy won the East Division title before dominating the Conference’s postseason tournament for their league-best 11th crown. The nationally-ranked senior was in the top 20 all season, eventually earning All-GLVC, GLVC Player of the Year, and ITA All-America honors. She was also a GLVC Player of the Week on February 12.
Men's Track and Field:
Hogan earns his third scholar-athlete honor in a row and is only the second Greyhound to be voted as such, as Stephen Baase was the very first selection for the program back in 2004. During the Indoor season he was named GLVC Indoor Field Athlete of the Year after winning shot put and weight throw at the postseason event, setting a new GLVC Championship record in the shot (17.81m). During the regular season, he was a two-time GLVC Indoor Field Athlete of the Week and earned USTFCCCA All-Midwest Region (shot) honors later and became a two-time national qualifier, garnering All-America honors with a third-place finish in the weight throw at the NCAA meet. He followed the impressive Indoor slate with GLVC Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year laurels, winning shot put, hammer throw, and discus at the league’s Outdoor meet, winning three GLVC Outdoor Field Athlete of the Week awards, and three USTFCCCA All-Midwest Region nods in shot, hammer, and discus. In addition, he was a three-time national qualifier and two-time All-American with a sixth-place finish in the discus and a seventh-place showing in the hammer. His efforts led UIndy to team titles at both Conference events. The Indianapolis, Indiana, product also impressed in the classroom, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a 3.70 GPA after recording a 3.00 this spring as a chemistry/pre-med major, earning a spot on the Honor Roll, being named Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District, and receiving the Richard E. Schrier Student-Athlete Scholarship.
Women's Track and Field:
Ruszkowski is just the second Miner to be chosen as scholar-athlete in the sport but first in over a decade, as Becca Kueny was the inaugural S&T honoree in 2006. She earned All-America in the high jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships, placing 13th and finishing the same in that event at the National Outdoor event. Before that, she won the GLVC pentathlon title at the league’s Indoor meet and later had a third place finish in the high jump in that same meet. The League City, Texas, product finished second in the GLVC Outdoor Championships high jump while making a NCAA D-II provisional qualifying mark during the indoor season in the pentathlon and long jump. Overall, Ruszkowski was a five-time national qualifier in the high jump. The senior had top clearances of 5-10 3/4 indoors and 5-7 3/4 outdoors in the high jump this season. Her indoor mark set a new school record and was tied for the best mark in the GLVC, and had the second-best overall performance outdoor this year. Leapt 18-8 1/2 in the indoor long jump that made an NCAA provisional qualifying mark and was the GLVC's third-best mark this season, while scoring 3,578 points to win the GLVC pentathlon title and had a season-best 3,639 in the multi-events. The mechanical engineering major graduated with a 3.78 GPA after finishing the spring off with a 3.26 semester clip. Those numbers helped her collect Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District and is eligible for Academic All-America honors for the second consecutive season. Moreover, she is a member of the S&T Dean's List and was a Scholar-Athlete award winner, while being selected as the women's Gale Bullman Award that goes to the top senior student-athlete in the program for this season.
Wrestling: In the sport’s third year of league sponsorship,
Kreith is the second Maryville wrestler and third student-athlete honored as scholar-athlete. Women’s basketball star Abby Duetham was the first Saint to win in 2013, while Nate Rodriguez was the sport’s inaugural winner in 2017. The Saints went 8-6 overall and 4-2 in league action this season, helped by Kreith’s individual 37-15 mark at 125 pounds. He was ranked as high as No. 8 in his weight class and spent the entire season in the top 10, voted to the All-GLVC Second Team, finished second at NCAA Super Regionals, and placed sixth at the NCAA Championships, which helped the team to a 10th-place result at the National meet. Just a sophomore, his 3.87 cumulative GPA in financial services and the 3.66 semester mark was good for Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District and All-America Third Team, as well as National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Academic All-America honors for the second-straight season, which aided the Saints to a NWCA team Academic National Championship with a 3.556 team GPA.
Baseball: Dalton Erger, Missouri S&T
Men’s Basketball: Alex Stein, Southern Indiana
Women’s Basketball: Jessica Kelliher, Lewis
Men’s Golf: Oliver Mast, Indianapolis
Women’s Golf: Kennedy Holtsclaw, Indianapolis
Men’s Lacrosse: Zach Bodeau, Rockhurst
Softball: Jennifer Leonhardt, Southern Indiana
Men’s Swimming and Diving: Adam Rosipal, Indianapolis
Women’s Swimming and Diving: Stephanie Palczynski, Lewis
Men's Tennis: Sam Clarke, Illinois Springfield
Women's Tennis: Hanna Volikova, Indianapolis
Men's Track and Field: Austin Hogan, Indianapolis
Women's Track and Field: Tyler Ruszkowski, Missouri S&T
Wrestling: Tyler Kreith, Maryville