MVC Elite 18 Award recipient Katie Jean of Illinois State and Missouri State's Kelsey Welber highlight the 2012 MVC Women’s Scholar-Athlete First Team, announced by the league office today. A total of seven student-athletes earned first-team scholar-athlete honors, and three others earned honorable-mention status.

 Jean and Welber are the lone unanimous selections to the team, voted on by the league's golf sports information directors. Each is a repeat first-team selection. They are joined on the first-team unit by Bradley's Kelly Amundrud (the lone three-time first-team selection on this year's team), UNI's Brittany Atterbury, Indiana State's Emily Dixon, Wichita State's Gretchen Huhnerkoch, and Southern Illinois' Alisha Matthews. Huhnerkoch and Matthews were also first-team scholar-athlete picks in 2011, while Atterbury -- the league's Golfer of the Year -- was a 2011 honorable mention scholar-athlete selection.

 Honorable-mention selections in 2012 include McCall Christopher of Indiana State, Missouri State's Emma Clegg, and Wichita State's Hollie Weatherburn.

 ISU's Jean, the league's individual medalist in 2012, was honored at the State Farm MVC Championship as the league's Elite 18 Award recipient, given to the qualifying student-athlete participating at the championship with the highest GPA. She earned that award in 2011 as well.

   The criteria for the MVC scholar-athlete team parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for academic Capital One Academic All-America® program. Nominees must have at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average (4.0 scale), while the student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institutions and must have participated in at least 50 percent of her team’s rounds or played at the State Farm MVC Championship.

 In addition to the seven first-team selections, an additional three student-athletes received honorable mention selection, by virtue of receiving a minimum number of votes. A total of 23 student-athletes were nominated for women’s golf scholar-athlete honors.

 Missouri State won the Missouri Valley Conference championship, April 22-24, in Terre Haute, Ind.


2012 Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Golf Scholar-Athlete Team
FIRST TEAM, School Yr. GPA Major Hometown
***Kelly Amundrud, Bradley Sr. 3.94 Accounting Calgary (Alberta) Strathcona Tweedsmuir
*Brittany Atterbury, UNI Sr. 3.37 Communications Rockton (Ill.) High
*Emily Dixon, Indiana State Jr. 3.96 Athletic Training Zionsville (Ind.) Community High
**Gretchen Huhnerkoch, Wichita State Jr. 3.96 Exercise Science Burnsville (Minn.) High
**Katie Jean, Illinois State Jr. 4.00 Mathematics Rantoul (Ill.) St. Thomas More
**Alisha Matthews, Southern Illinois Sr. 3.61 Recreation St. Louis (Mo.) Mehlville High
**Kelsey Welber, Missouri State Sr. 3.83 Marketing Plano (Texas) West High

Honorable Mention Yr. GPA Major Hometown
McCall Christopher, Indiana State So. 3.66 Athletic Training Lee's Summit (Mo.) North High
Emma Clegg, Missouri State Jr. 3.82 Geography Blackburn (Lancashire, England) Clitheroe Royal Prep
Hollie Weatherburn, Wichita State Jr. 3.78 Communications Machester (England) Western Texas College

*denotes number of times student-athlete has earned first-team scholar-athlete