INDIANA, Pa. – Senior Walt Pegues has been named the 2017-18 IUP Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year, announced Tuesday, June 5 by the IUP Athletic Department.
 
The award is part of the Crimson & Gray Awards, which recognize the top athletes, coaches, teams and performances of the IUP Athletics season. The Awards are in their second year of existence.

RELATED | IUP Scholar-Athlete past winners
RELATED | 2017-18 Crimson & Gray Awards

Pegues graduated in May with a 3.48 cumulative grade point average as a communications media major. A member of IUP's Cook Honors College, he completed the Promising Scholar Program at IUP and was a Dean's List member each semester.
 
On the field, Pegues will go down as one of the best receivers in the history of the IUP football program. Despite missing significant time as a senior due to injury, he finished his career third at IUP with 156 receptions and 2,530 receiving yards. Pegues has three of the 10 biggest single game receiving yardage totals in program history, and ended his career with a streak of 39 straight games with a reception.
 
Pegues is fourth at IUP with 4,326 career all-purpose yards, and holds school records for punt returns yards in a game (121) and season (320), punt return average in a season (19.4) and career (11.9), longest punt return (96), and kickoff return yards in a season (590).
 
Pegues is currently working for Envision, a national youth leadership forum, at Villanova University this summer. He is also working toward attending graduate school in Fall '18 or Spring '19.
 
About the Scholar-Athlete Award
The Scholar-Athlete of the Year is given to an IUP men's and women's senior for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom. To be eligible, the student-athlete must graduate in May of that year, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 or higher, and be a starter or valuable contributor for an IUP varsity team.
 
About the Crimson & Gray Awards
The Crimson & Gray Awards are in their second year of existence and consist of 18 total categories - nine women, nine men - with top performers and performances from the 2017-18 year eligible.
 
Continuing from their inaugural year, awards include: Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Coach of the Year, Performance of the Year, Freshman of the Year, Breakthrough Athlete of the Year, Postseason Performer of the Year, Senior of the Year, Team of the Year and Athlete of the Year.

The IUP Sports Information Office collected award nominations from its coaches, with those nominees voted on by a select panel to narrow each category down to three finalists. That panel votes again to determine the winners.
 
Up next
The 2017-18 IUP Men's and Women's team Coaches of the Year will be announced Wednesday.
 
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For up-to-date game information, visit www.IUPAthletics.com and follow IUP Athletics on Twitter @IUPCrimsonHawk.