ST. LOUIS -- Audacia Moore of Wichita State University and Heath Melugin of Missouri State University have been selected as the female and male recipients, respectively, of the Missouri Valley Conference’s Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete Award, Valley Commissioner Doug Elgin has announced. The Missouri Valley Conference Faculty Athletics Representatives Committee selected Moore and Melugin from a field of league student-athletes who met the Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete Award criteria, including academic achievement, athletics excellence and service and leadership.

 Moore, who is from Wichita, Kan., carries a 3.94 cumulative grade point average in nursing. She received the Missouri Valley Conference Women's Track & Field Elite-18 Award this season and was named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete team for the fourth time in her career. She is a 10-time MVC champion who holds individual school records in five events and in three relays. In her career, she was named the league's most valuable athlete four times, while helping the Shockers to four MVC team titles. This past year, she posted the MVC's top times in the outdoor 100 meters (11.59), outdoor 200 meters (23.57) and indoor 60 meters (7.45), and she qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Round in both the women's 100 meters and 200 meters, participating in regionals for the third time in her career. Most recently, Moore earned selection to the 2012 Capital One Academic All-District Women's Track/Cross Country second team.

 A three-year captain, Moore spent four years on Wichita State's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), while serving on the conference SAAC the last three. She has has been extremely active in community service while a student-athlete at Wichita State, with multiple years of volunteer work with the following organizations: the Salvation Army, Shocks Cops and Kids, Shocker Pen Pal Program, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Prairie Farm Marathon, and Toiletries for the Homeless.

 Melugin, meanwhile, was an All-MVC first team honoree as a senior in 2011 and led the MVC co-champion Bears in points, goals, shots, shots on goal and game-winners. He earned CoSIDA Academic All-America honors for the second straight year, garnering elite status as the first Bear in any sport to earn Academic All-America first-team distinction since 2006. The standout forward from Springfield, Mo., was named to the MVC All-Tournament Team as a senior and was selected as the 2011 MVC Elite 18 Award winner in men's soccer. He also earned CoSIDA Academic All-District first-team honors for the third season, was named Prairie Farms-MVC Student Athlete of the Week twice, earned a spot on the MVC Scholar-Athlete first-team for the third year and was named a finalist for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.

 In May, Melugin was named the winner of the 58th Annual Virgil Cheek Athletic Achievement Award, becoming just the third men's soccer player to receive the award and first since 2006. The Virgil Cheek Award has been given annually since 1955 to the graduating senior male student-athlete best demonstrating high qualities in scholarship, character, attendance, leadership and athletic performance. He finished his career ranked fifth all-time at MSU in game-winners (8), seventh in goals (22) and eighth in points (53). He earned summa cum laude honors with a 3.97 GPA in molecular biology and plans to attend medical school at the University of Kansas.

 The first-ever recipient of the Honda Award of Merit in 1996 for outstanding achievement in women’s collegiate athletics, Dr. Charlotte West was a driving force for more than 40 years in the area of advancement of women’s sports. On June 30, 1998, she retired from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, after serving in the capacities of head coach, associate athletics director, interim athletics director and senior woman administrator during her 41 years with the Missouri Valley Conference-member institution. West coached five women’s sports from 1957-75 and, in 1982, was among the first group of women inducted into the SIUC Athletics Hall of Fame.

 During her tenure at SIUC, she became the first female member of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and later served on the organization’s board of directors. West was also a president of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). In 1991, she was presented with the Administrator of the Year Award by the National Association of Collegiate Women Administrators. West also received the Administrator of the Year Award, given by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.