ST. LOUIS – Illinois State senior David Perkins has been named the Missouri Valley Conference Men's Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year, announced by the conference office on Thursday afternoon.
Perkins, who earned first team All-Scholar-Athlete team honors last season, is the fifth Redbird student-athlete to earn multiple honors, joining Nic Baker (2001, 2002), Mike Cushing (1995, 1996, 1997), Adam Goldie (2000, 2002), and Jeff Kellen (2010, 2011). This year he earned four MVC Golfer of the Week honors in the shortened season, giving him 11 career Golfer of the Week honors, the second-most in MVC history.
The criteria for the MVC scholar-athlete team parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for its Academic All-America program. Nominees have at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale), while the student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletica and academic standing at their institutions and must have participated in at least 50 percent of his team's rounds.
The East Peoria, Illinois, native was named to the Ben Hogan Award Watch List, signifying the top amateur golfer in the country. He was the top MVC golfer heading into the season shutdown, and his average score (69.39) was nearly three strokes ahead of the second lowest in the MVC this season.
Perkins played in six tournaments and 18 rounds during the season and he had five top-10 finishes. Of his 18 rounds, 16 were at or under par. At the Golfweek Conference Challenge in September he was the individual medalist, finishing 10 shots under par for the tournament. In each of his completed tournaments during the year he had an aggregate score of under par.
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