ST. LOUIS -- Senior women's golfer Meaghan LeBlanc (Calgary, Alberta/Western Canada) has been named a Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete for the third consecutive year, according a release made by the conference office Thursday morning.
A tri-medalist at last week's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Women's Golf Championship, LeBlanc won the individual title at three of the last four events the Braves played in and finished in second place or better in all four tournaments to conclude the season.
A finance major with a 3.74 cumulative grade point average, she holds the Bradley season and career stroke average records and is one of four four-time first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference honorees in Valley history. She is also one of four two-time medalists at the Valley Championship and joined Illinois State's Samantha Richdale as the only players in conference history to accomplish both feats.
LeBlanc earned first-team Valley scholar-athlete honors for the third time in her career, joining former Bradley standouts Kelly Dillon and Mary Anne Locher as the only three-time MVC scholar-athletes in program history. She is one of 11 three-time Valley scholar-athletes in conference history.
The criteria for the MVC scholar-athlete team parallels the ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for academic all-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves with at least a 3.00 cumulative grade point average (4.0 scale). Student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institutions and must have participated in at least 50 percent of her team's rounds or played at the Missouri Valley Championship.
LeBlanc and the Braves won the fourth Valley title in program history and third in the last five years. Bradley will be participating in its third NCAA Regional in program history. The Braves will play in one of three NCAA Regionals which will be announced Monday May 1. The 2006 NCAA Regionals will be played May 11-13 in Bryan, Texas (Texas A&M host), Browns Summit, N.C. (Wake Forest) and Auburn, Wash. (Washington).
