HIGH POINT, N.C. –  High Point University men's track & field senior Paul O'Donoghue has been named the 2016 Big South Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, marking the first time in school history a male HPU student-athlete has earned the accolade.
 
O'Donoghue placed first in the voting ahead of Coastal Carolina's Alex Ross (football) and Gardner-Webb's Patrick Graham (baseball).
 
On the women's side, track & field senior Christine Rickert finished second in the voting behind Liberty's Ashley Rininger. Volleyball senior Gabi Mirand placed third.
 
The Big South Male and Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year are selected from a pool of each sport's Scholar-Athlete of the Year winner announced during the regular season. 
 
O'Donoghue was voted CoSIDA Third-Team Academic All-America this season to become HPU's first men's track & field athlete to earn the distinction. He was the Big South's Scholar-Athlete of the Year in Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field in 2015-16, and a three-time winner overall. 
 
A 12-time All-Big South performer, he was a 10-time individual event champion during his collegiate career -- including the Big South 800-meter champion in 2015. O'Donoghue also set a school record in the indoor 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:26.81 on Jan. 30, 2016.  He was part of High Point's record-breaking indoor DMR team that set a school mark with a time of 10:01.35, which was tops in the Big South this season. 
 
A four-time Millis Scholar-Athlete and four-time Big South Presidential Honor Roll member, the mathematics major graduated in May with a 3.91 grade-point average and was also a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree during his time at High Point.
 
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