2019-20 Pacific West Conference Scholar-Athletes of the Year

IRVINE, Calif. -- Following up their collection of honors as ARTYs Most Valuable Players and Academic All-PacWest, Academy of Art saw both Julius Kreutzer (men's golf) and James Young (men's track & field) earn recognition for their scholastic success as Pacific West Conference Scholar-Athletes of the Year in their respective sports.

PacWest Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors were selected in a vote by the PacWest sports information directors. Each of the winners are now eligible for the PacWest Male and Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards, which will be announced this on Wednesday, June 24.

Kreutzer was the top Urban Knight not just on the links, but in the classroom as well. Putting together a 2019-20 campaign that garnered Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar honors last week, he led the team with a 3.92 GPA in Music Production & Sound Design while also recording the best average round score 72.72. Kreutzer's pair of top-2 finishes earned him a PacWest Golfer of the Week award twice this season, the first coming on Oct. 10 after he won the Concordia Invitational following a tie for the lowest single-round score in ART U history with a 66 in round one. The other honor would come after he placed second at the NDNU Invitational for the week of Mar. 12. Kreutzer would end the year ranked 30th in the West Region per GolfStat.

​Coming off a successful cross country season, Young turned heads in the Urban Knights' indoor track & field season when he broke the program record in just his second mile of 2020. Going 4:04.14 at the GVSU Big Meet (exactly four years after Valentin Pepiot's 4:06.85 in 2016), Young would finish the season as an All-American in the event, ranking sixth in NCAA Division II at the year's close. He also contributed the anchor-leg of the program's record-breaking Distance Medley Relay at the BU Last Chance Meet. The 9:50.24 mark also resulted in All-American status after it ended seventh in NCAA DII. Young's season-best in the 800m (1:53.57 at the UW Invitational) also made him a three-time USTFCCCA Indoor All-Region honoree and he collected all of these accolades while posting a 3.66 GPA in Advertising.

Following McKaela Christensen (women's cross country), Valentin Pepiot (men's cross country), Gatien Airiau (men's track & field), and Marion Presigny (women's track & field), Kreutzer and Young represent the fifth and sixth PacWest Scholar-Athletes of the Year Academy of Art has seen to date.