SPRINGFIELD -- Three Missouri State baseball Bears were named to Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete teams Thursday as Aaron Conway and Brent Seifert earned first-team nods and J.C. Casey was an honorable mention pick in a vote of the league’s sports information directors.

    Conway, a senior center fielder from Edwardsville, Ill., hit .325 with team highs in doubles (16), triples (5), runs scored (52) and stolen bases (19). Conway, who sits in a tie atop Missouri State’s all-time stolen base list with 69 career thefts, has a 3.21 cumulative grade point average in criminology. In addition to holding the stolen base record, Conway concluded his MSU career ranked third with 16 triples, fourth with 31 hit by pitch and sixth with 17 sacrifice bunts. He had 225 hits, 91 RBIs and scored 166 runs in 192 career games.

    Seifert carries a 3.60 GPA in psychology and led Missouri State with nine home runs and 43 RBIs while starting all 56 games. The junior from Cameron, Mo., shared the team lead with 16 doubles while scoring 35 runs and slugging .483. He started 36 games at third base and 20 at first while setting 2011 MSU superlatives for hits in a game (5), home runs in a game (2), total bases in a games (9, twice) and hitting streak (12 games).

    Casey graduated cum laude with an accounting degree May 13, finishing his undergraduate studies with a 3.59 GPA. The Springfield native pitched in 15 games as a senior, going 1-0 with one save in 39 innings. He had a 3.69 ERA, 31 strikeouts and a .260 opponent batting average. Casey threw the longest relief appearance in school history his final game, tossing 10 shutout innings with 11 strikeouts and five hits against Creighton in the State Farm MVC Tournament.

    The criteria for the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team voting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves, with at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average. Student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution and must have completed at least one full academic year at their institution.

2011 MVC Baseball Scholar-Athlete First Team:
Jared Baehl, Evansville
Ty Blach, Creighton
Kyle Burnam, Indiana State
Aaron Conway, Missouri State
Trentt Copeland, Evansville
Ryan Court, Illinois State
Kevin Hall, Wichita State
Koby Kraemer, Indiana State
Jeremy Lucas, Indiana State
Brent Seifert, Missouri State
Alex Staehely, Creighton
Jimmy Swift, Creighton

2011 MVC Baseball Scholar-Athlete Honorable Mention:
J.C. Casey, Missouri State
Brock Harding, Southern Illinois
Chad Hinshaw, Illinois State
Nick Judkins, Creighton