Grace Beyer named top NAIA student-athlete by CSC for third straight year
The University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy's Grace Beyer is the recipient of the College Sports Communicators' (CSC) women's basketball Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The CSC on Tuesday announced their 2023-24 Academic All-America women's basketball teams for all levels of college basketball as well as the top player at each level. Beyer's selection this season as the NAIA's Team Member of the Year makes it now three years in a row that Beyer has won that recognition.
Beyer finishes out her UHSP career as the most decorated athlete in school history and is the recently installed all-time women's leading scorer in NAIA history. Along with now being a three-time CSC Team Member of the Year, she is also a three-time NAIA First-Team All-American. She led the entire NAIA in scoring this season averaging 35.0 points-per-game. It is the fourth straight campaign that she has led the country in scoring. Beyer was also second in the nation in free throw percentage finishing at 93.1% with no one else in the NAIA coming close to her volume of shots at the charity stripe as she converted 375 of her attempted 403.
The NAIA's First Team Academic All-America consists of Beyer, who is a pharmacy major and has a grade point average of 3.97, Sandra Cannady of Loyola University New Orleans (Business Administration, 4.00), Indiana Wesleyan University's Lilli Frasure (Elementary Education, 3.97), Ashlee Maldonado from the University of Providence (Organizational Leadership, 4.00) and Jamie Pickens of Carroll College (Nursing & Health Sciences, 3.57). The Second Team is comprised of Jessica Carrothers (Indiana University Northwest), Mak Hatcliff (Doane University), Bekki Kalaydjiev (Southeastern University), Olivia Sprague (Oregon Tech), Callie Stevens (Lewis-Clark State College) and Jordan Sweeney (Montana Western). Five of the 11 members maintain a 4.0 GPA in their undergraduate work or graduate school. The five player on the first team have an average GPA of 3.93, with the entire NAIA team combining for a 3.90 GPA. Outside of Beyer, the only other repeat selection on the NAIA team is Olivia Sprague who earned first team honors last year.
Beyer is joined as one of the headliners for the Academic All-America unveiling by other Team Members of the Year at the various other levels of college basketball including Caitlin Clark (Iowa, Division I), Samantha Pirosko (Gannon University, Division II), and Natalie Bruns (New York University, Division III). Clark is the most recognizable in that group having led Iowa to their second straight National Championship appearance while becoming the first Division-I player to record 1,000+ points in back-to-back seasons. Clark was drafted by the Indiana Fever as the top-overall pick in the WNBA draft on Monday. While Beyer is the NAIA's all-time leading scorer, Clark is the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer. Clark finishes her career with the Hawkeyes with 3,951 points while Beyer ends her UHSP career with 3,961 all-time points.