On Friday it was announced that 349 Ohio Valley Conference student-athletes have earned the OVC Academic Medal of Honor for the 2024-25 academic year.

It marks the second-highest total in league history (trailing only the 356 winners in 2020-21). The total was 37 honorees higher than a year ago.

The OVC Academic Medal of Honor is given annually to the student-athletes who achieve the highest grade point average in a Conference-sponsored sport. Every Academic Medal of Honor recipient for the 2024-25 academic year carried a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

Of the 349 award winners, 60 were awarded Academic Medals of Honor for multiple sports (and counted just once in the final recipients list).

Eastern Illinois and Lindenwood tied for the most selections with 48, followed closely by Southeast Missouri (47). The sport of women’s soccer had the most honorees league-wide (65), followed by women’s track and field (64) and softball (40).

Eastern Illinois has now had 362 OVC Academic Medal of Honor Award winners over the last nine years, the highest total in the OVC. The Panthers have led the conference in seven of the last ten academic years, finishing second in number of OVC Medal of Honor winners in the other three academic years.

Over the past fi ve years there have been over 1,590 student-athletes earn the OVC Academic Medal of Honor.

The OVC will announce the recipients of the Commissioner’s Honor Roll, the Academic Achievement Award and the Team Academic Achievement Awards next week.

EIU OVC Academic Medal Of Honor Award Winners
Baseball: Nate Marshall, Sam Wiese
Men’s Basketball: Kooper Jacobi
Women’s Basketball: Lyric Johnson, Jayda Johnston
Beach Volleyball: Katie Kopshever
Men’s Cross Country: Michael Atkiuns, Aidan Gonzalez, Joe Stoddard, Mason Stoeger
Women’s Cross Country: Mackenzie Aldridge, Isabel Arthur, Anna Bieber, Rylea Borgic, Rachel Koon, Sophie Krueger, Macie Russell, Kaitlyn Ward
Football: Bryce Burnett, Payton Orth
Women’s Golf: Morgan Grant
Men’s Soccer: Sam Eccles
Women’s Soccer: Colleen Bauer, Kate Germano, Brooklynn Greene, Hadley Hendrickson, Ashlyn Hoover, Kylie Mahoney, Ashley Petersen, Abby Reinl, Avery Richardson, Kya Trejo
Softball: Sophie Cerveny, Alisha Frederick, Kendall Grover, Emily Konkel, Maddux Marshall, Karlie McKenzie
Women’s Tennis: Emma Pilipovic-Kljajic
Men’s Track & Field: Enoch Appiah-Kubi, Michael Atkins, Porter Conroy, Joseph Fisher, Aidan Gonzalez, Jacob Maxwell, Ryan Palmer, Joseph Stoddard, Mason Stoeger
Women’s Track & Field: Mackenzie Aldridge, Isabel Arthur, Anna Bieber, Rylea Borgic, Isabella Fabrizio, Rachel Koon, Sophia Krueger, Makenna McBride, Macie Russell, Taryn Tarquin, Hallee Thomas, Kaitlyn Ward
Volleyball: Katie Kopshever