• All-Time OVC Male Athlete of the Year Award Winners
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Murray State senior basketball guard
Jonathan Stark has been selected as the Ohio Valley Conference Male Athlete of the Year for 2017-18 in voting by the league’s athletics directors and sports information directors.
Stark will receive his award at the League’s annual Honors Brunch on June 1 in Nashville. The Female Athlete of the Year (Eastern Kentucky outfielder Paige Murphy) was announced on Wednesday.
Stark was named OVC Player of the Year and OVC Tournament MVP in leading the Racers to a 26-6 overall record, 16-2 League mark and first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012. He was also named OVC Preseason Player of the Year, marking the first clean sweep of the three honors since preseason honor began in 1994. The guard also picked up honorable mention All-American honors from the Associated Press.
The senior led the OVC and ranked 19th nationally in scoring (21.4 points/game) while knocking down 110 3-pointers, a MSU record and the fourth-highest single-season total in OVC history. His 3.44 3-pointers made/game ranked eighth nationally while his 37:42 minutes played/game was 12th among all Division I players. Stark had 19 games with 20 or more points, and four contests with 30 or more points.
Stark was a perfect 14-of-14 at the free throw line against Southeast Missouri and set a Murray State record with 39 consecutive free throws made during the season. Overall, his 89.3 free throw percentage ranked him 17th nationally. He also ranked sixth in the OVC in assists/game (3.9) and seventh in steals (1.3/game).
Following the season, he was selected to compete in the 2018 State Farm College 3-Point Championship at the Final Four in San Antonio. He placed second after leading the field in the first two rounds of the event when he hit 40-of-50 shots. Stark was also invited to play in the prestigious Portsmouth Invitational.
Stark is the eighth different Murray State student-athlete to be named OVC Male Athlete of the Year and first since Cameron Payne earned the honor in 2014-15. All the winners (who have won 10 combined awards) have been men’s basketball players. Overall it marks the fifth time in the last eight years that the OVC Male Athlete of the Year has been a men’s basketball player.
Other male nominees for the award included Austin Peay sophomore defensive end Jaison Williams, Belmont senior multi-event track athlete Caleb Corprew, Eastern Illinois senior third baseman Dougie Parks, Eastern Kentucky senior distance runner Jamaine Coleman, Jacksonville State senior defensive end Darius Jackson, Morehead State senior infielder Braxton Morris, Southeast Missouri sophomore basketball guard Denzel Mahoney, SIUE senior track & field athlete Julian Harvey, Tennessee State senior track & field athlete James Faison, Tennessee Tech junior designated hitter Kevin Strohschein and UT Martin senior golfer Hunter Richardson.
The OVC first awarded a Male Athlete of the Year award in 1977.