ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Junior men's golfer Lyle Burns (Mahomet, Ill./Seymour/Parkland) was named a First-Team Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete, while sophomore Bobby Jacobs (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso) and senior Danny Masrin (Palatine, Ill./Jakarta International School) both earned honorable mention Valley Scholar-Athlete distinction according to an announcement by the league office Thursday.
A business management & administration major with a 3.42 cumulative grade point average, Burns led the Braves with a 74.52 stroke average, tallying the fourth lowest scoring average on The Hilltop and best since 2002-03. He tied for the team lead with five top-10 finishes and was named MVC Golfer of the Week after winning medalist honors at the Bradley Invitational where he carded the lowest 54-hole total in school history (210).
Burns placed in the top 10 in three of the last four tournaments, including the MVC Championship where he tied for eighth to lead Bradley. He had 29 sub-80 rounds and carded a school season record six rounds in the 60's in his first year on the squad. During the fall, Burns tied the lowest round in school history with a 66 to tie a mark which has stood since 1966.
Masrin earned honorable mention MVC Scholar-Athlete honors in his final season after he was a First-Team Valley Scholar-Athlete last year. A 2013-14 All-MVC performer the business management & administration major owns a 3.47 cumulative grade point average. Masrin was second on the team with a 74.60 average, which ranks as the fifth lowest in school history.
Second all-time at Bradley with 94 career sub-80 rounds, Masrin had 28 of 30 rounds in the 70's in 2014-15 and closed his career with the sixth lowest career stroke average (75.96) in school history. He had two top-10 finishes and placed in the top 20 in eight of 10 events. The MVC Golfer of the Week following a tie for 16th at the Badger Invitational, he was the team's top finisher four times and posted the second longest streak of consecutive sub-80 rounds in school history at 30.
A civil engineering major with a perfect 4.00 cumulative grade point average, Jacobs played in 10 of 12 events and finished the year with an 80.74 stroke average. He carded a season-best 74 in the opening-round of the Weibring Intercollegiate and had 10 rounds in the 70's during 2014-15.
Bradley has had a First-Team MVC Scholar-Athlete in seven of the last eight seasons and Burns is the ninth individual in program history to garner First-Team Valley Scholar-Athlete honors.
The criteria for the MVC scholar-athlete team parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for academic Capital One Academic All-America® program. Nominees must have at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average (4.0 scale), while the student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institutions and must have participated in at least 50 percent of his team's rounds or played at the State Farm MVC Championship.
