Four Missouri Valley Conference baseball players have been named to the 2012 Capital One Academic All-District First Team, as announced Thursday.  Student-athletes from four MVC schools earned academic all-district honors, including Creighton’s Nick Judkins, Missouri State’s Brent Seifert, Southern Illinois’ Austin Montgomery and Wichita State’s Kevin Hall.

To be nominated, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) at his current institution.  Nominees must also have participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s games at the position listed on the nomination form and have completed one full calendar year at the nominating institution to be eligible.

With four selections to the first team, all four Valley student-athletes are now eligible for the inclusion on the Academic All-America® team selected by CoSIDA.  The voting period for the national ballot begins next week.

Nick Judkins, Creighton
Judkins leads the Bluejays offensively this season with a .299 batting average, starting and playing all 38 games at first base.  He has a team-high 44 hits and sits second on the team with 24 runs driven in.  He has a .402 on-base percentage this season, with 18 walks and eight hit-by-pitches.

He put together a season-high 14 game reach base safely streak, one game shy of his career-mark, earlier this season, the second longest streak on the season.  He also leads the team with 13 multi-hit games and has six multi-RBI games this year.

Judkins is also a staple for the Bluejays defense, starting every game at first base since he stepped on campus last season.  He has committed just one error in 434 chances for a .998 fielding percentage.

A 2011 Missouri Valley Conference Academic All-Conference honorable mention member, Judkins holds a 3.51 cumulative grade point average in business marketing.

Brent Seifert, Missouri State
An anchor in the middle of the Bears’ lineup all season, Seifert has been one of Missouri State’s top run-producers throughout his two-year career, bringing a team-high 37 RBIs into this week’s action. The Cameron, Mo., product leads the club in slugging percentage (.488) and on-base percentage (.413), while also sharing the team lead with five home runs. A preseason All-Missouri Valley Conference selection, Seifert has driven in the game-winning run for the Bears seven times in 2012 and ranks among the MVC’s individual leaders in walks (third), doubles (fifth), triples (seventh) and RBIs (eighth).

Seifert, who maintains a 3.63 grade-point average as a physical education major, now advances to the Capital One Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be selected later this month. Fourteen former Bears have earned Academic All-America honors, with Buddy Baumann and Ben Carlson being the most-recent MSU honorees in 2009.

Austin Montgomery, Southern Illinois
Montgomery is hitting .330 with six home runs and leads the Salukis with 46 RBI. He ranks in the top five in the MVC in hits, doubles, RBI and total bases. A native of Marion, Ill., Montgomery has started every game for SIU this season. Midway through the year, he made a seamless transition from right field to third base to help shore up the Salukis infield.

The junior from Marion, Ill. is majoring in mechanical engineering and has a 3.594 GPA. He has been named to the MVC Academic Honor Roll in each of his first two years with SIU. Montgomery was also named MVC Conference Player of the Week and MVC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Week on Feb. 20.

Kevin Hall, Wichita State
Hall, a senior outfielder from Springfield, Ill., has a 3.69 GPA in chemistry. He already has a degree in exercise science.  This is the second-straight season that Hall has been named to the Academic All-District Team.

This season, he is hitting .254 with 23 runs, four doubles, one home run, 18 RBI, 10 sacrifice hits and 16 stolen bases in 46 games for the Shockers.