Missouri Valley Conference men's golf champion Wichita State headlines the 2012 MVC Men’s Scholar-Athlete First Team, announced by the league office today. WSU student-athletes occupy four of the nine total selections for first-team and honorable-mention awards.

 Golf sports information directors in the conference voted.

 Two Shockers repeated as first-team selections, including the 2012 MVC Golfer of the Year Rafael Becker, and the 2012 State Farm MVC Championship medalist Hunter Sparks. They are joined on the first-team unit by teammate Calvin Pearson, Southern Illinois' Jake Erickson, Evansville's Griffin Wood, and UNI's Ryan Horner. Erickson and Wood are also repeat first-team selections, while Horner was the MVC's Elite 18 award recepient, given to the qualifying student-athlete at the State Farm MVC Championship with the highest grade point average.

 Tyler Gann of Wichita State, Michael Sainz of Evansville and Daniel Young of Bradley received honorable mention selection, by virtue of receiving a minimum number of votes.

 Notably, five student-athletes selected to the scholar-athlete teams also earned all-conference honors including Becker, Gann, Erickson, Pearson and Sparks.

   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 his team’s rounds or played at the State Farm MVC Championship.

 Wichita State won the 2012 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men's Golf Championship, April 30-May 1, at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan.

2012 Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Golf Scholar-Athlete Team

FIRST TEAM, School Yr. GPA Major Hometown
**Rafael Becker, Wichita State Jr. 3.38 International Business Sao Paulo (Brazil) Sidarta School
**Jake Erickson, Southern Illinois Jr. 3.60 Finance Springfield (Ill.) Sacred Heart Griffin
*Ryan Horner, UNI So. 3.80 Accounting Waukee (Iowa) High
*Calvin Pearson, Wichita State So. 3.54 Exercise Science Durban (KwaZulu-Natal) South Africa
**Hunter Sparks, Wichita State Jr. 3.28 Business Administration Oklahoma City (Okla.) Putnam City
**Griffin Wood, Evansville Sr. 3.35 Management Boonville (Ind.) High

Honorable Mention Yr. GPA Major Hometown
Tyler Gann, Wichita State Jr. 3.31 Communications Houston (Texas) Memorial High
Michael Sainz, Evansville Jr. 3.28 Mechanical Engineering Elgin (Ill.) Larkin
Daniel Young, Bradley So. 3.87 History Secondary Education Metamora (Ill.) High

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