19 Mountaineer Student-Athletes Honored With the 2022 Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award

Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications

19 Mountaineer Student-Athletes Honored With the 2022 Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award

February 23, 2022 06:14 PM | Baseball, Football, Golf, Men's Soccer, Men's Swimming & Diving, Cross Country, Gymnastics, Women's Soccer, Women's Swimming & Diving, Track & Field, Volleyball

By: Mike Montoro

IRVING, Texas - West Virginia placed 19 student-athletes among a total of 165 Big 12 Conference student-athletes who were recognized with the 2022 Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award - the Big 12 Conference's highest academic honor.

The award is in its 12th year and has recognized a total of 1,063 conference student-athletes. Baylor led the way with 28 honorees, followed by Iowa State with 22. West Virginia had 19, while Kansas and Oklahoma State followed with 18 and 17 winners, respectively. Texas Tech had 16 recipients and Texas had 15. Oklahoma had 14 winners, plus TCU and Kansas State each had eight.

Earning recognition for the Mountaineers were Camille Burt (Sr., Women's Swimming, Marketing), Megan Casner (Sr., Rowing, Animal & Nutritional Sciences), Stephanie Chmiel (Jr., Women's Soccer, Biomedical Lab Diagnostics), Tessa Constantine (Sr., Women's Track & Field, Management), Aaron Denk Gracia (Sr., Men's Soccer, Management), Kurtis Grant (Sr., Men's Golf, Finance), Peyton Kukura (r-Jr., Women's Cross Country & Track, Elementary Education), Casey Legg (r-Sr., Football, Accounting), Paul Lenz (Sr., Men's Swimming, Management Information Systems), Kristin Lux (Sr., Volleyball, Sport Management), Joshua Madzy (Sr., Men's Swimming, Mathematics), Malina Mitchell (r-Jr., Women's Cross Country & Track, Sport & Exercise Psychology), Conrad Molinaro (Jr., Men's Swimming, Accounting), Tucker Nadeau (Sr., Wrestling, Spanish), Megan Present (Sr., Rowing, Finance), Emma Toy (Sr., Rowing, Criminology), Abigail Riggs (Sr., Women's Swimming, Advertising & Public Relations), Timothy Wynia (Jr., Baseball, Finance), Verena Zaisberger (Sr., Rifle, Music).

The award is in memory of Lage, who served as the Oklahoma State faculty athletics representative with the NCAA and the Big Eight/Big 12 Conference from 1983 until his death in 2007. He was the chairman on three occasions (1985-86, 93-94 and 2003-04).

Lage had been a member of the Oklahoma State family since 1966, when he joined the College of Business Administration as an assistant professor. During his tenure at OSU, he served as the director of graduate studies in the department of economics (1974-77), head of the department of economics and finance (1978-84), director of the OSU Center for International Trade and Development (1985-87), and associate dean for research and graduate programs in the college of business administration (1997-2004).

In order to be eligible for the accolade, student-athletes must have lettered at least once in their career while maintaining residence at their institution for at least one academic year. The honoree, which can only be recognized once, should have 100 hours of earned credit with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.80 at the time of the nomination.

The Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award recipients' names will be featured on the video board at the Phillips 66 Big 12 Basketball Championships, scheduled for March 9-12 at the T-Mobile Center and March 10-13 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.