VanHoevelaak leads list of SE honorees

Laura VanHoevelaak took front and center stage Wednesday as Southeast Missouri State University held its annual Scholar-Athlete Luncheon at the University Center.

VanHoevelaak earned special recognition for her numerous academic and athletic achievements. She is the recipient of the Ohio Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Award for 2002-2003, which is the highest honor that can be achieved by an OVC athlete.

VanHoevelaak is also a Verizon Academic All-American, a four-time OVC Medal of Honor winner and a four-time Southeast Scholar-Athlete. She graduated last May with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average and is currently in graduate school as she completes her final year of outdoor track and field eligibility.

Wednesday's luncheon honored 129 student-athletes who earned 3.0 or higher cumulative grade-point averages, which is the second-highest ever at Southeast, behind only last year's 136 honorees.

Those 129 represent 46 percent of the student-athletes at Southeast, whose student-athletes have a cumulative GPA of 2.971. The women's cross country team has the highest cumulative GPA at 3.762.

Fifteen scholar-athletes have a perfect 4.0 cumulative GPA, including seven members of the women's track team.

Those with a 4.0 GPA are basketball player Derek Winans; baseball player Joey Pilcher; football player Matt Boyack; tennis player Kay Ehlke; track athletes Jen Burke, Michele Jett, Kimberly Krieger, VanHoevelaak, Kris Woolf, Lindsay Zeiler and Emily Zimmerman; softball player Kelly Birk; and soccer players Jen Cross, Ashley DeRoy and Lauren Fabbro.

Southeast also had a school-record and league-high 21 student-athletes earn Ohio Valley Conference Medals of Honor for the 2001-2002 school year, which are given annually to the student-athletes who achieve the highest GPA in a conference-sponsored sport.

OVC Medal of Honor winners for the 2001-2002 school year were:

Winans (basketball); Amy Arteme, Burke, Krieger, Jessie Thompson, VanHoevelaak and Woolf (women's cross country); Cross, Karen Schmidt and Nichole Thiele (soccer); Birk and Brooke Nett (softball); Ehlke (tennis); Arteme, Burke, Sara Kaznica, Krieger, Thompson, VanHoevelaak and Woolf (women's track); and Emily Wahlman (volleyball).