the Salem Civic Center today.
The winners have been announced for the 2017 Jostens Trophy. Carnegie Mellon University standout Lisa Murphy and Hope College star Harrison Blackledge are honored with this season’s top awards, which recognize outstanding student-athletes in Division III basketball for excellence in the classroom, on the court, and in their respective communities.
The Jostens Trophy is a joint creation of Jostens, Inc., of Minneapolis, Minn., and the Rotary Club of Salem. The purpose of the award is to honor the true Division III student-athlete – the athlete that shows excellence in the classroom, on the playing floor and in the community. In addition to the Trophy, the Wooldridge Scholarship, a $1,000 donation, will be presented in the names of the winners to their institutions. The scholarship was named after Dan Wooldridge, a Salem Rotarian and retired Commissioner of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, as a way of honoring him for his long-time dedication to Division III athletics.
The winners were chosen by a national selection committee that consists of college coaches, former athletes, college administrators and selected members of the media. The members of the national selection committee cast their votes based on three criteria: basketball ability, academic prowess, and community service.
The awards presentation for the Jostens Trophy will be today, March 16, held in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Salem’s weekly meeting and as prelude to the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball National Championship Series at the Salem Civic Center.
Lisa Murphy, a native of McLean, Va., has established herself as the best player in Carnegie Mellon history, and sits amongst the greatest players in the history of the University Athletic Association (UAA) and Division III as a whole. Murphy is the UAA career scoring leader with 2,306 points. She averaged more than 20 points and 10 rebounds for the third straight year in 2016-17, while leading the nation in field goal percentage (78.0%) for the third consecutive year.
Murphy is one of only eight players in Division III history to record 2,000 career points, 1,000 career rebounds, and 200 career blocks. Murphy was named a First Team All-America by the WBCA and D3hoops.com in 2016 and was named the UAA Player of the Year in 2016 and 2017. Murphy was also named the 2017 Great Lakes Region Player of the Year.
In the classroom, Murphy maintains a 3.84 cumulative grade point average as a psychology major. She is the vice president of Psi Chi, the psychology honor society, and she was elected to the academic honor society, Phi Beta Kappa. In 2016 Murphy was named a First Team Academic All-America, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). In 2017, CoSIDA named her the Academic All-American of the Year.
Harrison Blackledge, a native of Canton, Ohio, has been a driving force for the Hope men’s basketball team all season. He led the team in scoring with 20 points per game and was second with 5.9 rebounds per game. He was an efficient scorer converting 56.9-percent of his field goals, 40-percent of his three-point attempts and 79.9-percent of his free throws. He sits in the Hope records charts with the third-most career made free throws (447) and attempted free throws (571), and he ranks tenth all-time in career field goal percentage (.542). His 601 points this season rank third all-time among Flying Dutchmen players.
In the classroom, Blackledge maintains a 3.91 cumulative grade point average as a communications and management major. This year he became only the second Hope men’s basketball player to earn Academic All-America distinction, as the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) named him to the first team
