(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) – The University of Central Missouri swept the MIAA Ken B. Jones Awards for the second year in a row, winning both the men’s and women’s conference student-athlete of the year award.
Brent Vogel, of Mules track and field, and Kayla Shain, of Jennies soccer, were honored on Thursday night as the conference’s top student-athletes at the MIAA Awards Ceremony at the Kansas City Public Library – Plaza Branch.
Central Missouri becomes the first school to sweep the awards twice and just the third time overall. This is also the third straight year that at least one UCM student-athlete has won the award.
Vogel was the Vernon Kennedy Award winner as Central Missouri’s top male senior student-athlete. He was a two-time national champion in track and field for UCM, winning the 2011 decathlon national championship and the 2013 pentathlon title. He was named the 2013 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Central Region Field Athlete of the Year and the 2013 USTFCCCA National Field Athlete of the Year. He was an eight-time All-American and an eight-time MIAA Champion. He has a 3.77 grade point average in biology, is a USTFCCCA All-Academic Award winner and is an MIAA Scholar-Athlete having at least a 3.5 GPA and having earned All-conference honors.
Shain was one of three winners of the Dr. Peggy Martin Award as UCM’s top female senior student-athlete. She was the 2012 MIAA Soccer Player of the Year and a first team All-MIAA selection. She was named all-MIAA four times during her career, helping lead the Jennies to three straight MIAA regular season titles without losing a match (34-0-2). She helped lead the Jennies to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and two straight trips to the Sweet 16. She was a two-time All-Region selection, including first team honors this season and was named a CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American. She graduated with a 4.0 GPA in speech pathology and was a four-time winner of the MIAA’s Academic Excellence Award for a 4.0 grade point average. She was a four-time MIAA Scholar-Athlete and a four-time member of the MIAA Academic Honor Roll.
Vogel and Shain become the ninth and 10th UCM student-athletes to win the conference’s top honor, which is named for the MIAA’s first full-time commissioner. Ken B. Jones retired in 1997 after 16 years of service to the league and died in May 2004 at the age of 74.
The winners are chosen by a 16-member panel representing each of the MIAA-member institutions, as well as the conference office.
The panel judges the nominees in four areas: 2012-13 athletics accomplishments; 2012-13 academic accomplishments; 2012-13 campus/community service; and career athletic, academic and service achievements.