ST LOUIS – Colt Ryan of Evansville highlights a list of 13 student-athletes honored as part of the 2012 MVC Scholar-Athlete Teams, announced today by the league office. Last Thursday, the junior from Batesville, Ind., was tabbed the league’s Prairie Farms Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Voting for the 2012 MVC Scholar-Athlete Team was conducted by league’s sports information directors.
Ryan is the second Evansville player to earn Prairie Farms Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors -- the program began in 2002. [Jason Holsinger shared the league’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year award with SIU’s Bryan Mullins in 2009.] Ryan has a 3.31 cumulative GPA in accounting. In addition to earning first-team Scholar-Athlete honors, Ryan also earned first-team all-MVC honors, after being named to the all-MVC Second Team last season.
Ryan is joined on the first-team unit by Indiana State’s Jordan Printy (a repeat first-team MVC selection), Bradley teammates Charonn Woods and Walt Lemon, Jr.; Illinois State’s Jon Ekey; and UNI’s Chip Rank.
The second-team unit consists of Nathan Scheer and Isaiah Rhine of Missouri State; Lucas Eitel of Indiana State; Jake Eastman of Bradley; and Jordan Clarke of Drake.
The criteria for the Missouri Valley Conference’s Scholar-Athlete Team voting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Capital One Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.20 cumulative grade-point average (4.0 scale). Student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution (true freshmen and redshirt freshmen were not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at their institution. He must have played in 75 percent of his team’s games, or played in the State Farm MVC Championship this past week.
2012 MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE SCHOLAR-ATHLETE FIRST TEAM
Jon Ekey, Illinois State So. 3.27 Business Administration Independence (Mo.) Chrisman High
Walt Lemon, Jr., Bradley So. 3.30 Psychology Chicago (Ill.) Julian High
Jordan Printy, Indiana State Sr. 3.71 Education Marion (Iowa) Linn-Marr High
Chip Rank, UNI So. 3.66 Economics/Business Admin. Cedarburg (Wis.) High
Colt Ryan, Evansville Jr. 3.31 Accounting Batesville (Ind.) High
Charonn Woods, Bradley Jr. 4.00 Health Science St. Louis (Mo.) MAC High
2012 MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE SCHOLAR-ATHLETE SECOND TEAM
Jordan Clarke, Drake Jr. 3.24 Business and Public Admin. Rockville (Md.) Vermont
Jake Eastman, Bradley Jr. 3.26 Sports Communication Richmond (Va.) Douglas Freeman High
Lucas Eitel, Indiana State So. 3.62 Education Marshall (Ill.) High
Isaiah Rhine, Missouri State Sr. 3.75 Speech & Language Pathology Versailles (Mo.) High
Nathan Scheer, Missouri State So. 3.76 Construction Management Washington (Mo.) St. Francis Borgia High
2012 MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE SCHOLAR-ATHLETE HONORABLE MENTION TEAM
Ehimen Orukpe, Wichita State, Jr., 3.68 Math; Austin Pehl, UNI, Jr., 3.37 Art: Studio and Marketing/Advertising
