Drake’s Anna Miller has been named the State Farm Scholar-Athlete of the Year and headlines a group of six of the league’s top players named to the 2024 Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete First Team, as voted by the conference’s women’s basketball contacts. In all, 22 players were honored on the scholar-athlete teams.
Miller, a junior, sports a perfect 4.0 grade point average while majoring in health sciences at Drake. She ranks among the league leaders in scoring (13.2), leads the league in rebounding (9.9), is second in field goal percentage (54.3) and leads the league with 83 blocks (2.7 per game). She’s joined on the first team by Grace Boffeli of UNI; Kiley Bess of Indiana State; Barbora Tomancova of Evansville; Tuti Jones of Belmont; and Tessa Miller of Belmont.
The criteria for the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team voting parallels the CSC (College Sports Communicators) standards for Academic All-America nominations. Student-athletes must be at least a sophomore academically and athletically and must be enrolled at their institution at the time of nomination either as undergraduates or graduate students. [The 12-month residency requirement for undergraduate transfers is no longer required.] An undergraduate student-athlete must have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale), and a graduate student-athlete must have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) as both an undergraduate and a grad student unless they are in their first semester as a graduate student and don’t have an established graduate GPA.
A total of 35 Valley student-athletes met the nomination criteria for scholar-athlete honors in 2024.
| First Team |
Yr. |
GPA |
Major |
| Kiley Bess, Indiana State |
Sr. |
4.00 |
Pre-Physical Therapy |
| Grace Boffeli, UNI |
Jr. |
3.94 |
Elementary Education |
| Tuti Jones, Belmont |
Sr./R-Jr. |
3.95 |
Sport Administration |
| Anna Miller, Drake |
Jr. |
4.00 |
Health Sciences |
| Tessa Miller, Belmont |
Jr. |
3.98 |
Legal Studies |
| Barbora Tomancova, Evansville |
Gr. |
4.00 |
Health Services Administration [4.00 (undergrad) Psychology] |
|
|
|
|
| Second Team |
Yr. |
GPA |
Major |
| Olivia Brown, Valparaiso |
5th |
3.93 |
MBA [3.968 (undergrad) Communication] |
| Kate Bullman, Illinois State |
Sr. |
3.89 |
Psychology |
| Katie Dinnebier, Drake |
Jr. |
3.71 |
Pharmacy |
| Ella Sawyer, Indiana State |
5th |
3.98 |
Middle School Math Teaching [4.0 (undergrad) Middle School Math] |
| Katelyn Young, Murray State |
Sr. |
3.78 |
Organizational Communications |
|
|
|
|
| Third Team |
Yr. |
GPA |
Major |
| Courtney Becker, Drake |
Sr. |
3.86 |
Pharmacy/Health Informatics and analytics |
| Paige Clubb, Southern Illinois |
Jr. |
3.94 |
Elementary Education |
| Leah Earnest, Valparaiso |
Sr. |
3.71 |
Exercise Science |
| Cailyn Morgan, UNI |
Sr. |
4.00 |
School Counseling |
| Callie Ziebell, Bradley |
Jr. |
3.95 |
Elementary Education - ESL Endorsement |
|
|
|
|
| Honorable Mention |
Yr. |
GPA |
Major |
| Anna Brown, Drake |
Gr. |
3.80 |
Accounting [3.62 (undergrad) Accounting] |
| Ryley Goebel, UNI |
So. |
3.85 |
Pre-PA / MBA - Biomed |
| Kaybe Laube, UNI |
Jr. |
3.88 |
Psychology / Biology |
| Adrianna Katcher, Southern Illinois |
Sr. |
3.87 |
Exercise Science |
| Maya McDermott, UNI |
Jr. |
3.51 |
Digital Media Leadership |
| Taryn Wharton, UNI |
So. |
3.80 |
Biology / Nursing |