CLEVELAND – Seven Missouri State men’s swimmers were voted by faculty athletic representatives as Distinguished Scholar Athletes, representing the ‘best of the best’ from the eight Mid-American Conference winter sports, the league announced Friday, April 15.
The Distinguished Scholar Athlete is a second-year award given to students who have excelled in athletics and academics. Following each season from the winter sports schedule, any student with a 3.20 GPA and participation in at least 50 percent of the contests was automatically named to the previously announced Academic All-MAC Team from each sport. Also, first-year students, junior college and graduate school transfers in their first year of residence were not eligible for the award.
MSU’s Canaan Campbell, Kacper Cwiek, Miguel Davila, Christopher Heye, Uvis Kalnins, Jack Snow, and Brandon Weissman were among a total of 202 student-athletes from the eight winter sports recognized by the conference during the 2015-16 academic season. MSU had the second highest amount of student-athletes among the seven schools which participate in men’s swimming selected, with 34 men’s swimmers honored as Distinguished Scholar Athletes.
Davila, Kalnins, Snow and Weissman were honored as Distinguished Scholar Athletes by the MAC last season and are two-time selections.
Seniors Davila and Kalnins were both All-MAC First Team performers, with Davila earning a conference title in the 1650-yard freestyle and Kalnins finishing with gold medals in the 200 IM and 400 IM. Snow and Weissman were each honored for a second time by the MAC after seasons in which both appeared multiple times on MSU’s top-five times list.
Sophomores Campbell, Cwiek and Heye were named as Distinguished Scholar Athletes for the first time in their first year of eligibility. Cwiek and Heye both were named to the All-MAC Second team and Campbell earned six of 10 personal-best event times this season.
The MAC will announce the Distinguished Scholar Athletes from the eight spring sports sponsored by the conference later this spring.
Swimming news courtesy of MSU Swimming & Diving.
