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Grand Canyon’s Samantha Murphy, Bentley Nakasawa claim Scholar Athlete of Year honors
PHOENIX, Ariz. – For their
outstanding effort in the classroom and in the arena of athletic
competition, Grand Canyon University junior women's basketball
player Samantha Murphy (Phoenix, AZ/Xavier
Prep) and senior men’s golfer
Bentley Nakasawa (Yuma, AZ/Yuma Catholic)
have been named the 2009-10 Pacific West Conference Scholar
Athletes of the Year.
The PacWest made the announcement on Wednesday, June 23, 2010, from its conference media office in Phoenix, Ariz. The sports information directors of the PacWest voted on the honor.
Murphy earned her second straight PacWest Women’s Scholar Athlete of the Year award after also claiming her second consecutive Women’s Basketball Scholar Athlete of the Year honor earlier this week.
The 5-foot-8 junior guard has amassed a 3.96 grade point average while majoring in pre-physical therapy.
The academic honor complements her athletic award after Murphy was
named the PacWest Women’s Basketball Player of the Year this
season. She also earned her third straight All-PacWest First Team
selection.
During the 2009-10 campaign, Murphy became the all-time leading scorer in Antelope history. She finished the year averaging 19.0 points per game to top the conference and completed her junior season among the leaders in 11 of 13 categories.
She also set a new Grand Canyon mark for single-season free-throw percentage (87.0).
Nakasawa was named the PacWest Scholar Athlete of the Year in Men’s Golf prior to his earning the PacWest Men’s Scholar Athlete of the Year award. The business major owns a 3.71 GPA.
On the links, Nakasawa finished 13th at the PacWest Championship to earn Second Team All-Conference accolades. He was key member of both the 2009 and 2010 Grand Canyon teams that captured the PacWest title, and he competed in two NCAA Division II Championships and three regionals for the Antelopes.
During the 2010 season, Nakasawa produced a 74.14 stroke average to claim a ranking of 19th in the NCAA II West Region and 99th in all of Division II.
During the 2009 NCAA II West/Central Regional, Nakasawa registered a hole in one.
The Pacific West Conference selects Scholar Athletes of the Year in each of its 11 sports. The award winners then are placed on a conference ballot to determine the Men’s and Women’s Scholar Athletes of the Year.
The following list of student athletes were on the final ballot and were named Scholar Athlete of the Year in their respective sport.
Men’s Scholar Athletes of the Year
- Baseball: Tyler Bair (Grand Canyon University)
- Men’s Basketball: Lucas Alves (Brigham Young University Hawaii)
- Men’s Cross Country: Kevin Enriques (Hawai‘i Pacific University)
- Men’s Golf: Bentley Nakasawa (Grand Canyon University)
- Men’s Soccer: Sam Akinaka (Brigham Young University Hawaii)
Women’s Scholar Athletes of the Year
- Women’s Basketball: Samantha Murphy (Grand Canyon University)
- Women’s Cross Country: Amanda Tanchanleun (Hawai‘i Pacific University)
- Women’s Soccer: Mikala Wilkes (Dixie State College of Utah)
- Softball: Casey Sugihara (Hawai‘i Pacific University)
- Women’s Tennis: Elwen Li (Brigham Young University Hawaii)
- Women’s Volleyball: Tanya Alvino (Chaminade University of Honolulu)
