ROLLA, Mo. – Keith Sponsler (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln East), who earned the top individual swimming honor from the Great Lakes Valley Conference during the 2014-15 season and went on to earn All-America honors, has earned another award for the year as he was named by the GLVC as its "Scholar-Athlete of the Year" in men's swimming & diving.

Sponsler, a junior at Missouri S&T who is majoring in nuclear engineering, has earned a number of honors in recent months, beginning with his selection as the GLVC's "Swimmer of the Year" at the league's championship meet in February to lead the Miners to a second place finish in the team standings.

Sponsler earned the GLVC's top individual honor this year after winning two events in school record fashion and was also part of S&T's winning 800-yard freestyle relay team.

He recorded times of 44.16 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle and 1:36.57 in the 200-freestyle – the fifth-fastest in the nation during the regular season at the NCAA Division II level – and went on to place seventh in the latter event at the NCAA Division II Championships in March.

Sponsler has earned eight All-America awards during his first three seasons at S&T and has been part of eight winning performances at the GLVC Championships over the last two years.

Last week, Sponsler was named to the Capital One Academic All-America team for the second consecutive season, earning a spot on the first team after being named to the second team following his sophomore season.

Sponsler is the first Missouri S&T swimmer to earn the league's scholar-athlete honor in that sport, which has only been sponsored as a championship sport by the GLVC for two seasons.  He is the ninth from S&T to receive the honor since the institution joined the conference in the 2005-06 academic year.

The other winners of the GLVC's Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards for the winter and spring seasons include four individuals from Lewis University – Jamie Johnson (women's basketball), Alex Thode (men's golf), Armand Levandi (men's tennis) and Rebecca Priesler (women's track & field), as well as three from the University of Indianapolis in Matt Kaplanis (baseball), Chanice Young (women's golf) and Brooke Boyts (women's tennis).

The GLVC's list was rounded out by Southern Indiana's MacKenzi Dorsam (softball) and Johnnie Guy (men's track & field), Rockhurst's Liam Duffy (men's basketball) and Drury's Wai Ting Yu (women's swimming & diving).