BAY CITY, Mich. — Former Michigan Technological University basketball player Austin Armga (Waupun, Wis./Waupun), and former Grand Valley State University track and field athlete Kristen Hixson (Remus, Mich./Chippewa Hills) were named the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s (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. This season he was voted honored on the All-GLIAC First Team, GLIAC All-Tournament Team, and NCAA Midwest Region All-Tournament Team. He also garnered awards for being NABC First Team All-Midwest Region and earned the Ken Hamar Award.

Hixson, a senior and a finance major with a 3.97 G.P.A., repeated as the Capital One Academic All-America® of the Year for the Division II Women's Track and Field/Cross Country program after earning the honor a year ago. Hixson is one of two three-time Capital One Academic All-America® Women's Track and Field/Cross Country first-team selection on this year's squad.

A seven-time NCAA Division II All-American, Hixson capped off her stellar career at Grand Valley State by claiming her third individual national title in the pole vault. The Remus, Michigan, native set a new Division II standard at the outdoor national championship, clearing 4.50 meters (14-9) to win the title and claim the eighth-best pole vaulting mark in the world this year at the time of the meet. Hixson also won the national pole vaulting titles in 2012, sweeping both the indoor and outdoor individual championships.

Hixson's efforts in the pole vault helped the Lakers finish third as a team at the 2014 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championship. Hixson was one of four student-athletes from Grand Valley State to be named to the Meijer Commissioner's Award list for the winter season. She is a four-time Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference pole vault champion and has posted four other top-five finishes at the NCAA Division II Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Championship in the discipline.

“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.