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Montana State Bobcat track standouts earn Big Sky Conference honors

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(Editor’s note: Montana State University press release)

BOZEMAN — The Big Sky Conference announced its 2018-19 Scholar-Athlete Award winners on Monday, July 8, and Montana State’s recipients were Elisabeth Krieger and Alex Lewis. The Big Sky Scholar Athletes were selected by their respective institutions, based upon athletic-and-academic performances during the past academic year.

The Bobcat pair had standout senior seasons for the MSU men’s and women’s track and field programs.

Krieger earned two medals and was an individual point scorer at conference championships two times during the course of the 2018-19 slate for the Bobcat women’s squad. She advanced to the 400-meter run finals at the Big Sky Conference Indoor Championships and eventually took sixth overall. She also was a member of MSU’s second-fastest 4×400 relay in program history that claimed gold in the event inside Worthington Arena. Krieger contributed to the Bobcats’ runner-up at the Big Sky Indoor meet.

The Portland, Ore., native capped her collegiate career by repeating her sixth-place showing in the 400 at the Big Sky Outdoor Championships in May. Krieger ran a personal-best time of 56.34 seconds in the preliminaries to advance to the finals. She earned a bronze medal at the meet by helping lead MSU’s 4×400 relay to a third-place finish. Krieger graduated this spring from Montana State University with a bachelor’s degree in natural resources and rangeland ecology. She accumulated a 4.0 GPA and was an All-Big Sky Academic Team selection every season she participated in as a Bobcat.

Lewis captured two medals and made podium appearances at both Big Sky Conference Championships over the course of the 2018-19 academic year. He earned his first all-conference showing of his collegiate career at the Big Sky Indoor Championships by setting a school-record mark of 24 feet, 8.50 inches (7.53m) in the long jump to take third. He also placed sixth in the triple jump to help propel the Bobcat men to a second-place effort at the conference indoor meet.

Lewis crossed over 25 feet in the long jump to become the school’s record holder in the event outdoors in April. He matched his best mark of 25-02 (7.67m) and earned the silver medal in the event at the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships. He also took sixth in the triple jump and helped MSU’s 4×100 relay take seventh at the meet. The Moscow, Idaho, native previously completed his undergraduate studies with a 4.0 GPA and obtained his master’s degree in accounting this spring. Lewis served as MSU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee president as a senior and was selected as a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree for the second time this past year.

To qualify for the award, a student-athlete must have a minimum grade-point-average of 3.2 (on a 4.0 scale), be a member of the graduating class and/or have complete their last year of intercollegiate athletic eligibility, have completed at least two years of intercollegiate competition and be a letterwinner in their respective sport.