ST. LOUIS – Drake’s Sara Rhine has been named the Enterprise Bank & Trust Scholar-Athlete of the Year and headlines a group of five of the league’s top players named to the 2019 Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete First Team, as voted by the conference’s women’s basketball sports information contacts. Rhine, a two-time recipient, is one of two Drake student-athletes to earn the Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor in women’s basketball, joining former Bulldog Lindsay Whorton (2008). In all, 19 players were honored on the scholar-athlete teams.

With a 4.00 grade point average in Elementary Education, Rhine is a second-time selection on the MVC Scholar-Athlete first team. Rhine is joined on the first team by Drake’s Becca Hittner, Bradley’s Chelsea Brackmann, Missouri State’s Danielle Gitzen and UNI’s Ellie Howell. 

Second team selections include Bradley’s Gabi Haack, Drake’s Maddy Dean, Missouri State’s Alexa Willard, UNI’s Karli Rucker and Southern Illinois’ Abby Brockmeyer and Makenzie Silvey. 

The criteria for the scholar-athlete team balloting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for the Google Cloud Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves, have played at least 75-percent of a team’s games, and must carry at least a 3.20 GPA (on a 4.0 scale). 
    
Student-athletes must also have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution (true and redshirt freshmen are not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at the institution.

A total of 42 Valley student-athletes met the nomination criteria for scholar-athlete honors in 2019. 

First Team                                        Year        GPA    Major
Chelsea Brackmann, Bradley          Junior     3.50    Health Science
Danielle Gitzen, Missouri State        Senior    3.67    Advertising & Promotion
Becca Hittner, Drake                       Junior       3.96    Marketing
Ellie Howell, UNI                              Senior      4.00    Master of Business Admin
Sara Rhine, Drake                            Junior      4.00    Elementary Education

Second Team                                        Year                GPA    Major
Abby Brockmeyer, Southern Illinois      Sophomore    3.94    Business
Maddy Dean, Drake                              Graduate         3.64    MBA Graduate Program
Gabi Haack, Bradley                             Sophomore    3.70    Elementary Education
Karli Rucker, UNI                                  Sophomore    3.40    Elementary Education
Makenzie Silvey, Southern Illinois         Sophomore    3.98    Business
Alexa Willard, Missouri State                Junior              3.78    Finance

Honorable Mention                                   Year              GPA    Major
Sammie Bachrodt, Drake                         Senior           3.57    Finance
Taylor Hagen, UNI                                    Senior           3.96    Communication Sciences
Meredith Hamlet, Valparaiso                   Senior            3.55    Public Relations
Tamara Lee, Indiana State                     Graduate        3.50    Master of Physical Education
Nicole Martin, Southern Illinois               Junior             3.29    Exercise Science
Abby O’Connor, Loyola                           Sophomore    3.39    Political Science & Criminal Justice
Ellie Rice, Loyola                                    Sophomore    3.75    Biology    
Paige Saylor, Illinois State                        Sophomore    4.00    Biology