Information courtesy of Dusty Sloan, Ashland Sports Information Director
BAY CITY, Mich. -- Ashland's Laina Snyder and Adam Shaheen have been selected as recipients of the 2016-17 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards. The winners were chosen from the 18 male and female GLIAC Commissioner's Award honorees throughout the 2016-17 academic year showcasing the top student-athletes both on the field and in the classroom.
Laina Snyder - Women's Basketball - Ashland University
Snyder helped the Eagles win their second NCAA Division II national championship, and to the first 37-0 record in D-II women's basketball history. She was named the Elite Eight Most Outstanding Player after a three-game stretch in which she averaged 22.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.7 steals, and shot 58.0 percent from the field and 83.3 percent from the free-throw line.
This past season, Snyder led the Eagles in scoring (17.4 ppg.), rebounding (8.8 rpg.) and steals (101), while also averaging 3.6 assists per contest and hitting 51.6 percent from the floor and 80.0 percent from the charity stripe. Her impressive junior campaign led to the following honors – Division II Basketball Bulletin Player of the Year, first-team All-American from the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), Division II Conference Commissioner's Association (D2CCA) and Basketball Bulletin; second-team CoSIDA Academic All-America, All-Midwest Region tournament team, D2CCA Midwest Region Player of the Year, first-team D2CCA all-region, GLIAC Player of the Year, first-team All-GLIAC, All-GLIAC Defensive team, winter GLIAC Commissioner's Award, CoSIDA Academic All-District and All-GLIAC Academic Excellence.
Snyder also was featured in the "Faces In The Crowd" section of the May 1 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Adam Shaheen - Football - Ashland University
Shaheen is the 2016-17 Ashland University Male Student-Athlete of the Year following a junior campaign in which he caught an Ashland-record and NCAA Division II single-season tight end-record 16 touchdown passes as a junior in 2016, and 57 passes for 867 yards overall.
Among Shaheen's other 2016 honors are a 2016 GLIAC Commissioner's award, first-team American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), D2CCA and D2Football.com first-team All-American; D2CCA and Don Hansen first-team All-Super Region 4, CoSIDA first-team Academic All-America, CoSIDA first-team Academic All-District, All-GLIAC first-team and a Harlon Hill Trophy (D-II Player of the Year) nomination.
Click to view previous GLIAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year recipients