EVANSVILLE, Ind.—University of Southern Indiana senior All-American Mary Ballinger was named the Great Lakes Valley Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year for women's track and field in an in a vote by the league's faculty athletic representatives.

Ballinger, who was named the GLVC Scholar Athlete of the Year for women's cross country, recently capped off a stellar three-year career at USI with a third-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA II Outdoor Track & Field Championships last month. The finish garnered Ballinger her ninth All-America honor in three years.

A food and nutrition major with a 3.54 cumulative GPA, Ballinger is the third women's track and field student-athlete at USI to earn GLVC Scholar Athlete of the Year honors, joining previous winners Allison Shafer-Krieger (2007) and Heather Cooksey (2004).

It also is the 21st time in school history that a USI student-athlete has garnered GLVC Scholar Athlete of the Year honors.

In 2010, Ballinger was named the GLVC Indoor Track Athlete of the Year, and went on to capture All-America honors in both indoor and outdoor track. She was eighth in the mile at the NCAA II Indoor Championships.

Ballinger won three GLVC titles this spring, running her career total to nine individual conference titles.

The two-time USI/Integra Bank Female Student-Athlete of the Year, Ballinger became the first cross country/track and field performer in school history to be named to the ESPN The Magazine/Academic All-District V team when she was selected to the first team earlier this month.

In 2009, Ballinger became the third female student-athlete in school history to win a national championship when she finished first in the steeplechase at the NCAA II Outdoor Championships. She went on to capture a GLVC title in cross country before finishing fifth at the NCAA II Cross Country Championships this past fall.