INDIANAPOLIS – University of Southern Indiana softball student-athlete, Jennifer Leonhardt, and Truman State University women’s basketball student-athlete, Sloane Totta, have earned this year’s Great Lakes Valley Conference Postgraduate Scholarships, it was announced by the Conference office on Tuesday. The GLVC Postgraduate Scholarship is awarded to two recipients each year in the amount of $2,500 each to be used in the first year of post-graduate enrollment at the institution of their choice.
In her softball career at Southern Indiana, Leonhardt’s list of accolades is numerous. In the circle, she earned 2017 GLVC Freshman of the Year and 2019 GLVC Pitcher of the Year honors while being voted a three-time All-GLVC team member. As a freshman, she also was named the D2CCA Midwest Region Pitcher of the Year and was a finalist for the NFCA Freshman of the Year award while being named to the NFCA and D2CCA All-Region and All-America teams. In 2018, during her sophomore campaign, the Louisville, Kentucky, native led the Screaming Eagles to a GLVC Championship Tournament title, the NCAA Midwest Regional crown, and the Division II National Championship trophy where she was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. That same year, she was also a NFCA and D2CCA All-Region honoree and a FastPitchNews All-American. One year ago, Leonhardt again picked up All-Region and All-American merits from the NFCA and D2CCA while being named a top-25 finalist for the NFCA Player of the Year award and the USI Female Student-Athlete of the Year. Before the 2020 season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the senior was on her way to more laurels on the playing field, having already been named GLVC Pitcher of the Week on February 24 for the eighth time in her career, and having gone 7-3 in the circle with a 1.63 ERA, 76 strikeouts and a .174 ERA. She also led USI offensively with a .386 batting average, five doubles, a triple, two home runs, and 16 RBIs. Overall, Leonhardt ranked first all-time in career wins (83), strikeouts (787), and complete-game shutouts (35) while second all-time in innings pitched (730.2), fourth in complete games (85), and sixth in career ERA (1.76).
In the classroom, the Biology (pre-dentistry) major had a 3.78 GPA and is expected to graduate in May and attend Dentistry school at the University of Louisville this Fall. Throughout her tenure in Evansville, she was a five-time USI Dean’s List honoree, a three-time Academic All-GLVC pick, the 2019 GLVC Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and the 2019 Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District and All-American. Her current academic stats also have her on track for earning another Academic All-GLVC nod and will be in the running for CoSIDA’s academic honors.
In the community, Leonhardt has volunteered her time with Girl Scouts of Southwest Indiana to perform team-building exercises with the troops; Green Hart Project Louisville, partnering with UofL to encourage community members to participate in research regarding local environment impact on health; and twice with the NCAA softball World Series, visiting local elementary schools to discuss what it’s like being a student-athlete and how to never give up on their dreams. Additionally, Leonhardt was a four-year member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) on campus and co-president this past year. Not only did she give of her time to the youth and members of the local community, but she also took the time to be part of two GLVC PSA campaigns. First, she shared her story in the GLVCisMe video PSA and also the #SomeoneToListen mental health initiative. Her stories have likely helped and inspired immeasurable peers and others during the last two years those PSAs have run on the GLVC Sports Network.
It doesn’t get much better than a 4.0 GPA, and that’s what Totta has maintained during her four-year tenure in Kirksville while studying Communication Disorders. She made the Dean’s List every semester, and will soon become a four-time Academic All-GLVC honoree. She plans to pursue a masters’ degree at Truman State in the same program in order to become a speech-language pathologist.
Not only did she work hard in the classroom to maintain an unblemished record, but she also used that same effort on the court to set records and earn accomplishments as a four-year starter on the Bulldogs’ women’s basketball team. Totta became the first player in program history to be a back-to-back First Team All-GLVC selection while having earned all-league honors each of her four years, including being named to the All-Freshman team in 2016-17. In the Bulldogs’ annals, the Kirksville native ranks first in single-game field-goal percentage (1.000); third in all-time career assists (350) and games started (110); ninth in single-season assist (121), single-season assists per game (4.65), all-time career three-point field goals attempted (397), and all-time career assist average (3.15); 10th in all-time career three-point field goals made (136); and 11th in all-time games played (111). The guard also became the 21st player in Truman history to reach 1,000 points scored, finishing her career with 1,050. In her senior season, she went out with a 12.3 scoring average, shooting .431 from the field, .348 from three-point range, and .679 from the foul line, while also dishing 4.7 assists per game and grabbing 2.5 rebounds per game.
In addition to her leadership on the hardwood – as evidenced by being team captain her last two seasons – she led in the community, as well, participating in and completing a number of missions trips and service projects throughout her college career. Over the years, she traveled to Guatemala, Mexico, Alabama, and New Mexico for missions trips and spent a number of summers as camp staff for Truman’s youth and elite basketball clinics, while also volunteering for various events and activities such as Special Olympics, a youth basketball league, fundraising drives, church Sunday school, and an annual crafts project.
In order to qualify for consideration, the nominee must graduate by the end of the academic season – or by the end of the summer – of the application year, must have earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.3 (on a 4.0 grading scale), have competed in a GLVC-sponsored sport for at least two years, and be a member of a team in the year the scholarship is awarded. Each league member may nominate one male and one female from their respective institution.