RICHARDSON, Texas – The American Southwest Conference announced 22 graduating scholar-athletes from its 11 member institutions as Medal of Honor recipients Monday, including McMurry’s Kelby Tidwell and Christian Bryant on the list.

The ASC Scholar-Athlete Medal of Honor is presented to one male and one female member of the graduating class who has compiled the most outstanding record in academics, athletics and leadership over their collegiate career. The award is presented annually by the Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) at each conference member institution.

McMurry Faculty Athletics Representative Dr. Robert Wallace presented Tidwell of track & field and Bryant of men’s soccer with their medals at the 2022 Wally Awards on May 8, 2022 inside Kimbrell Arena.

Tidwell graduated from the University Honors Program this spring (Summa Cum Laude) with a 3.97 career GPA. She served as McMurry’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee President and as a four-year member of SAAC. She also graduated with honors from the department of mathematics, department of education and Kappa Delta Epsilon.

The Post, Texas native was equally excellent in athletics, leading McMurry to back-to-back women’s track & field conference championships as the ASC’s High Point Athlete. She set the meet record in the women’s heptathlon and won back-to-back championships in the women’s pole vault. Tidwell represented the War Hawks at the NCAA Division III championships as a women’s pole vault qualifier.

At the 2022 Wally Awards, Tidwell collected three awards – the Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the Bev Ball Award (top overall female athlete) and the Women’s Track & Field War Hawk of the Year.

Bryant is also a Spring 2022 graduate (Summa Cum Laude) and finished with Latin honors and a 3.86 career GPA. He was named McMurry’s Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year as the male senior with the highest GPA. Bryant earned academic all-conference every year he was eligible.

According to McMurry head coach Marquis Muse, the defender from Midland, Texas, served as a valuable leader for a young men’s soccer program. Bryant played in 13 games with 11 starts and nine wire-to-wire games where he never subbed out. One of his best performances came in a 1-0 shutout of Schreiner.

Bryant also spent his final two years with the McMurry Esports program as a key starter on the Rocket League team.

Recipients of the 2021-22 ASC Scholar-Athlete Medal of Honor represent 12 different conference sports and include individuals who graduated with academic honors, hold admission to graduate-level programs, are members of academic honor societies and campus organizations; competed on national, conference or division title teams; earned Academic All-America, ASC All-Academic, Distinguished Scholar-Athlete and All-Conference honors; and who served as volunteers, tutors and mentors within the campus and the community.

ASC 2021-22 Scholar-Athlete Medal of Honor Award Recipients  

Member	Scholar-Athlete	Major(s)	Sport(s)	Hometown
Belhaven	Matthew Ridden	Public Relations	Tennis	Gladstone, Australia
	Grace Eidson	Mathematics	Volleyball	Gainesville, Ga.
Concordia Texas	Victor Gomez	Business Administration	Soccer	Austin, Texas
	Makaela Lauritsen	Business Administration	Golf	Lakeway, Texas
East Texas Baptist	Rangel Miller	Kinesiology-Wellness Management	Track & Field/Cross Country	Shreveport, La.
	Grace Stephens	Biology (Human Biology)	Basketball/Track & Field	Keene, Texas
Hardin-Simmons	Cale Nanny	Education	Football	Argyle, Texas
	Mason McCord	Marketing	Softball	Greenville, Texas
Howard Payne	Trevor Fletcher	Criminal Justice	Baseball	Discovery Bay, Calif.
	Delaney Castor	History/Education	Soccer	Irving, Texas
LeTourneau	Andrew Eberhardt	Biomedical Engineering	Basketball	Pearland, Texas
	Jade Merrell	Kinesiology (Exercise Science)	Softball	McKinney, Texas
Mary Hardin-Baylor	Jacob Mueller	Exercise and Sport Science	Football	Fort Worth, Texas
	Kayla Janikula	Physical Therapy	Volleyball	Kingwood, Texas
McMurry	Christian Bryant	Mathematics	Soccer	Midland, Texas
	Kelby Tidwell	Mathematics Grades 7-12	Track & Field	Post, Texas
Ozarks	Alex Ray	Business Administration	Baseball	Franklin, Tenn.
	Kerigan Bradshaw	Chemistry	Basketball	Harrison, Ark.
Sul Ross State	Ozias Wright	Kinesiology	Football	Killeen, Texas
	Camryn Hardin	Kinesiology	Softball	Alpine, Texas
UT Dallas	Ramon Garza	Finance	Baseball	San Antonio, Texas
	Samantha Wong	Computer Science	Tennis	Grapevine, Texas

Biographical information provided by each student-athletes’ Faculty Athletic Representative and Sports Information Director.