BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – On Friday it was announced that a record 368 Ohio Valley Conference student-athletes have earned the OVC Academic Medal of Honor for the 2025-26 academic year.
The 368 selections passed the previous record of 356 winners set during the 2020-21 academic year.
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 2025-26 academic year carried a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
Of the 368 award winners, 53 were awarded Academic Medals of Honor for multiple sports (and counted just once in the final recipients list).
Eastern Illinois ranked third in the OVC this season with 44 Academic Medal of Honor award winners. Southeast Missouri led the OVC with 58 followed by Lindenwood with 54. The sport of women's track and field had the most honorees league-wide with 64 followed by women's soccer and softball with 57 each.
Eastern Illinois has now had 406 OVC Academic Medal of Honor Award winners over the last ten years, the highest total in the OVC. The Panthers have led the conference in seven of the last eleven academic years.
Over the past five years there have been over 1,600 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: Eli Hill
Men's Basketball: Kooper Jacobi
Women's Basketball: Adriana Arroyo, Clara Glad, Lyric Johnson
Beach Volleyball: Giorgia Cappelletti
Men's Cross Country: Michael Atkins, Phil Canopy, Aidan Gonzalez, Mason Stoeger
Women's Cross Country: Meika Bender, Anna Beiber, Rylea Borgic, Ashlyn Denney, Aly Douglass, Olivia Esche
Women's Golf: Sophia Miller, Mya Mirocha, Olivia Quigley, Meera Upadhyay
Men's Soccer: Gustavo Almeida, Pedro Otta
Women's Soccer: Colleen Bauer, Brooklynn Greene, Ashlyn Hoover, Ashley Petersen, Abby Reinl
Softball: Marybeth Dyson, Alisha Frederick, Lexie Griffin, Ava Hartman, Emily Konkel, Grace Lemke, Maddux Marshall, Karlie McKenzie, Hillary Springer, Lizzie Stiverson
Men's Track & Field: Michael Atkins, Phil Canopy, Adian Gonzalez, Jacob Maxwell, Kaden Salisbury, Maxwell St. Clair, Mason Stoeger, Alex Stout
Women's Track & Field: Meika Bender, Anna Bieber, Rylea Borgic, Ashlyn Denney, Aly Douglass, Makenna McBride, Macie Russell, Abby Venhaus
Volleyball: Giorgia Cappelletti
