Contact: Chassidy Holloway, Assistant Executive Director, holloway@midwestconference.org
GRINNELL, Iowa — The Midwest Conference (MWC) has announced the 2020-21 recipients of its Ruth Peterson and Roy W. LeClere Awards. Cornell College senior volleyball middle blocker Allison Eikenberry is recipient of the Ruth Peterson Award, while Lake Forest College senior men’s soccer goalkeeper Jan Roessler is the beneficiary of the Roy W. LeClere Award.
Awarded each year, the Ruth Peterson and Roy W. LeClere Awards are presented to the female and male scholar-athletes who achieved the highest-grade point average during their junior years.
Ruth Peterson is the former Commissioner of the Midwest Athletics Conference for Women, who went on to serve as the Co-Commissioner of the MWC. Peterson was a Beloit College alum and employee, passed away in October of 2006. Roy W. LeClere was a collegiate sports enthusiast whose passion for the MWC led friends and co-workers to originally sponsor the award as a memorial in his honor.
Eikenberry is Cornell’s second honoree of the Peterson Award – Colene McElmeel (1990-91) – since the award was established in 1983-84.
Eikenberry is pursuing a double major in biochemistry, molecular biology, and chemistry. She fashioned a perfect 4.00 GPA during the 2019-20 academic year.
In her junior season, Eikenberry was selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Third Team, CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team and earned the MWC’s Elite 20 Award. This fall, she received Cornell’s Paul Maaske Scholar-Athlete Award. Eikenberry is a three-time Academic All-MWC performer.
On the volleyball court, Eikenberry gained first team all-MWC honors in 2019 and was a second team pick in 2018. The three-year starter has been a keg cog in the Rams’ three consecutive MWC regular-season championships, highlighted by NCAA Tournament appearances in 2017 and 2018.
Eikenberry ranks seventh on Cornell’s career list with a .279 attack percentage. She has accumulated 786 kills and 171 blocks over three seasons. Eikenberry started 74 career matches.
Roessler is the third Forester to earn the LeClere Award honor.
A finance and computer science double major, Roessler has been named Academic All-MWC each of the last three years.
As Lake Forest's primary goalkeeper in 2019, Roessler tied the program's single season record with 10 victories. In 33 career appearances he owns a 14-14-2 record with three shutouts and 1.38 goals against average.
Conference coaches voted Roessler Second Team All-MWC after the 2019 season and, last spring, he was recognized as his sport's representative on the Lake Forest College All-Sportsmanship Team.
Roessler joins former Lake Forest cross country runners/swimmers Joe Zemaitis '02 and Brandon Johnson '03, back-to-back winners of the Roy W LeClere Award, as the only Foresters to receive the honor.