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From MTU Athletics
Former Michigan Tech basketball player Austin Armga (Waupun, Wis./Waupun), and former Grand Valley State track and field athlete Kristen Hixson (Remus, Mich./Chippewa Hills) were named the GLIAC 2013-14 male and female “Scholar-Athletes of the Year,” respectively, as voted by the league’s faculty athletics representatives.
Armga posted a 3.78 grade point average (4.0) in exercise science and earned three GLIAC Academic All-Excellence awards, along with being a 2014 Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team and Capital One Academic All-American First Team selection.
Hailing from Waupun, Wis., Armga finished second in the nation in total points and was seven points shy of breaking Tech’s single season scoring mark during the 2013-14 campaign. He ended his career as Michigan Tech’s leader in free throw percentage and ninth in both field goal percentage and points. During the 2013-14 season, he was voted All-GLIAC First Team, GLIAC All-Tournament Team, and NCAA Midwest Region All-Tournament Team. He also garnered All-America honors by Division II Bulletin and was a member of the NABC First Team All-Midwest Region and BCAM Academic-Athletic Team while receiving the Ken Hamar Award as the team MVP.
Hixson, who maintained a 3.97 G.P.A (4.0) in finance, was a three-time USTFCCCA All-American in the pole vault as well as a two-time GLIAC Academic Excellence honoree.
Hixson, a Remus, Mich. native, broke the GLIAC record and won the GLIAC Championship with a vault of 4.35 meters, and is a 2014 NCAA Division II National Championship qualifier, while helping the Lakers to the 2014 GLIAC title and a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Division II National Championships. Hixson won the 2012 NCAA Division II pole vault crown and placed second in 2013, while also placing second in 2011, 2012, and 2013 in the GLIAC Indoor Championships.
“The GLIAC is very proud of the academic and athletic accomplishments of Austin Armga and Kristen Hixson,” stated GLIAC Commissioner Dell Robinson. “The performance in the classroom of these two outstanding student-athletes has led them to being named to one of our top academic honors. Austin and Kristen are both an example of the extraordinary scholar-athletes we have in this conference.”
Both Armga and Hixson are now in the running for the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (CCA) Regional “Scholar-Athlete of the Year” awards.
