BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Gulf South Conference announced that Mississippi College's Avery Hederman and Caroline Perry were named the 2023 GSC Championship Scholar-Athlete for soccer and women's cross country.
 
Hederman, a Jackson, Mississippi native, received the GSC Champion Scholar-Athlete Award for maintaining a 4.00 GPA while majoring in accounting with a minor in english. She is the fourth women's soccer player from the Choctaws to achieve the award, including her sister, Erin, who won the award in 2022. Mississippi College student-athletes have been recognized 11 times since the award's inception in 2019-20.

Perry, a native of Grenada, Miss., earned the women's GSC Champion Scholar-Athlete Award after posting a 4.00 GPA while majoring in pre-physical therapy with a minor in psychology. The senior became Mississippi College's first cross country athlete to earn the award and its 10th overall.
 
This is the fifth year that the Gulf South Conference has presented the Champion Scholar-Athlete Award. The award is given out at the final site of each GSC Championship event and awarded to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA among the teams participating. Each student-athlete's GPA is based on the most recently completed term, and the individual must have a minimum of 48 credit hours to be eligible for the award. Student-athletes are only eligible to win the award once per academic year.