Former golfer Nathan Anderson, pole vaulter Leslie Brost and starting pitcher John Straka were among 58 student-athletes nationwide to be selected as NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners for the 2012-13 spring sports season.
The NCAA awards postgraduate scholarships to 29 men and 29 women each fall, winter and spring. The award is a one-time, non-renewable grant of $7,500 for study toward a graduate degree at the university or professional school of their choice.
NDSU student-athletes have earned 46 postgraduate scholarships since the program's inception in 1964. Anderson is the first NDSU men's golf recipient and Straka is the second NDSU baseball recipient. Anderson, an accounting major from Oxbow, N.D., won tournaments at Navy and South Dakota State University in 2012-13 and had the lowest scoring average in The Summit League with a school-record 72.23. A two-time Capital One Academic All-American, he was voted to the All-Summit League first team and Academic All-League in 2013.
Brost, an exercise science major from Watertown, S.D., made her sixth career NCAA championship appearance in June placing 18th in the pole vault. She was a six-time Summit League champion and became only the third female four-time outdoor champion in league history. She was a first team All-American in 2012 with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA indoor championships and was voted to the Capital One Academic All-America team in 2013.
Straka, an exercise science major from Chaska, Minn., was a three-time All-Summit League starting pitcher and a Capital One Academic All-American in 2013. He set NDSU career records for innings, shutouts and fewest walks per nine innings, and finished second in starts, wins and strikeouts.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation’s top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.