Grand Valley State's Boensch, Wayne State's Brown Named 2018-19 GLIAC Scholar-Athletes of the Year

Posted: Jul 16, 2019

GLIAC -- Grand Valley State's Cassidy Boensch and Wayne State's Hunter Brown have been selected as recipients of the 2018-19 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards. The winners, awarded annually to one male and one female, were chosen from the 18 male and female GLIAC Commissioner's Award honorees throughout the 2018-19 academic year showcasing the top student-athletes both on the field and in the classroom.

Cassidy Boensch | Women's Basketball | Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley State center Cassidy Boensch (Au Gres, Mich.) excelled on and off the court during a breakout junior season with the Lakers. She helped the team to its first GLIAC regular-season title since the 2005-06 season as they finished 29-4 overall and 19-1 in conference play. She was the driving force behind an NCAA Tournament run to the Sweet Sixteen and did so while carrying a 3.93 GPA with a double major in Biochemistry and Pre-Med and a minor is Human Rights.

The GLIAC Player of the Year averaged 19.6 points on 57.2 percent shooting and 11.6 rebounds, while setting the season program record for total blocks with 102 and total rebounds with 382. Her points per game, rebounds per game, blocks and made free throws all led the league while she shot an efficient 77.7 percent from the charity stripe. She also tallied 21 double doubles throughout the season, the fourth highest mark in the country.

A Google Cloud First Team All-American, Boensch also earned all-America nods from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA). In her three years in Allendale, she’s amassed 1,210 points on the second highest field goal percentage in program history (59.1 percent) while also ranking second in blocked shots per game (2.0) and third in total rejections (194).

Hunter Brown | Baseball | Wayne State University

Brown was a consensus All-American on the mound in 2019, earning First Team honors from D2CCA, Second Team recognition from ABCA/Rawlings and Third Team accolades from the NCBWA. He was voted Midwest Region Pitcher of the Year by all three organizations after compiling a 9-0 record in 14 starts with 114 strikeouts in 85.1 innings. Brown had a 2.21 ERA after allowing just 62 hits, including nine extra-base hits, in limiting opponents to a .203 average. He had 10 games of at least eight strikeouts and led the GLIAC in strikeouts (114), strikeouts per game (12.02), ERA (2.21) and shutouts (3).

Academically, Brown had a 4.00 term grade-point average for the winter 2019 semester, which improved his cumulative GPA to 3.63 as a public relations major. He was selected to the CoSIDA/Google Cloud Academic All-America First Team after receiving his second consecutive GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Team recognition. Brown was named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (term GPA 3.5+) four times in his career and the Coach's Honor Roll (term GPA 3.0-3.49) once.

A fifth round draft selection by the Houston Astros last month, Brown has started three contests for the Astros affiliate in the New York-Penn League. He concluded his collegiate career with a 14-3 record in 25 starts over three seasons (41 total appearances) with three complete games and three shutouts. Brown had a career ERA of 3.33 (59 earned runs), while striking out 178 batters in 159.2 innings.