Galesburg, IL – The Midwest Conference has recognized dozens of Knox College student-athletes for their accomplishments in the classroom during the past year.

The MWC released the 2012-13 academic all-conference honorees for the fall, winter, and spring sports seasons.  A total of 1,234 student-athletes representing the league's 11 institutions in 20 sports earned academic all-conference accolades, and 270 of them were multi-sport winners.

Prairie Fire athletic teams combined for 94 academic all-conference awards: 36 in the fall season, 27 in the winter, and 31 in the spring.

Football led the Knox teams with 11 players named Academic All-Midwest Conference.  Football also paced all of the Midwest Conference squads with 165 academic all-conference selections.

The Prairie Fire women's indoor track and field team had eight student-athletes named academic all-conference to lead Knox's winter teams.  Women's swimming was next with seven.

The spring team with the most academic all-conference selections was baseball with eight, followed by women's outdoor track and field with seven.

The criteria to be named to the Academic All-Midwest Conference team include a minimum grade point average of 3.33 (3.2 in previous years) which is calculated only in the awarded academic year.  Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors who letter in any of the MWC's fall, winter, or spring sports are eligible for the award.

The Midwest Conference's 270 multi-sport award winners include 147 recipients honored in two sports and 123 in three sports.  The conference handed out a total of 1,627 awards for the 2012-13 academic year, surpassing the 1,568 awarded (1,182 individual winners) last season.

Knox had 70 individual academic all-conference selections, and 19 among them were multi-sport award recipients.  Fourteen of the 19 earned Academic All-MWC recognition in two sports and five did so in three sports.

The 2012-13 Academic All-Midwest Conference release, which includes the names of all award winners, is available by clicking here

Follow Prairie Fire athletics on Twitter and Facebook