IRVING, Texas – Commissioner Mike Aresco has announced that Wichita State track and field standout Chonnor Ludolph and Temple cross country/track and field athlete Michelle Joyce have been chosen as the winners of the 2021-22 Commissioner’s Postgraduate Leadership Awards by the American Athletic Conference faculty athletics representatives. 
 
The awards are given to one male and one female student-athlete from an American Athletic Conference-sponsored sport who have been admitted to a degree-granting or professional program for the following year and who have demonstrated leadership through excellence in academic credentials, athletic performance and depth of commitment to service within the institution or the community. 
 
Ludolph and Joyce will each receive a $5,000 scholarship, which may be applied to postgraduate study. 
 
Ludolph becomes the first Wichita State student-athlete to earn a Commissioner’s Postgraduate Leadership Award. A native of Leroy, Kansas, Ludolph helped the Shockers to the 2022 American Athletic Conference Men’s Outdoor Track and Field title by virtue of a fourth-place finish in the decathlon.
 
Ludolph graduated from Wichita State with a 3.87 grade-point average as an undergraduate with a degree in exercise science. He earned Dean’s List accolades in every semester at Wichita State and has been accepted into the school’s physical therapy doctoral program. Ludolph served as an ICAA science tutor, was the lead lab and research assistant in Wichita State’s Human Performance Lab and was a regular volunteer for the school’s Read With the Shockers program. 
 
Joyce, who hails from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, becomes the first student-athlete from Temple to win a Commissioner’s Postgraduate Leadership Award. Joyce was the 2021 American Athletic Conference outdoor champion in the 5,000-meter run and was the conference runner-up in the 10,000. She took sixth in the 10,000 at the 2022 American Outdoor Championships and was third in the 2021 American Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships, becoming only the second Temple runner to qualify for the NCAA Championship. She was a four-time all-conference selection in cross country.
 
Joyce graduated from Temple with a 3.99 grade-point average as a bioengineering major with a master certificate in bioinformatics. She registered seven semesters with a 4.00 GPA and was a Dean’s List student in all eight semesters as an undergraduate. Joyce plans to pursue a Ph.D. in bioengineering at Stanford.


Commissioner’s Postgraduate Leadership Award
The Commissioner’s Postgraduate Leadership Award is presented annually to two student-athletes (one male, one female) who have demonstrated leadership through excellence in academic credentials, outstanding athletic performance and depth of commitment in service within the institution and/or in the community.
 

2013-14	Zach Willis, Baseball, Memphis
	Jackie Wattles, Volleyball, UConn
2014-15	Keenan Joyner, Track and Field, Memphis
	Julie Kernen, Softball, Tulsa
2015-16	Julien Dodu, Swimming & Diving, East Carolina
	Hannah Emnett, Rowing, Tulsa
2016-17	Kirk Smith, Cross Country/Track and Field, Tulsa
	Juliana Madzia, Cross Country/Track and Field, Cincinnati
2017-18	Chandler Klemm, Soccer, Memphis
	Vendela Norman, Swimming & Diving, East Carolina
2018-19	Austin Allen, Tennis, East Carolina
	Enna Selmanovic, Swimming & Diving, Cincinnati
2019-20	Din Selmanovic, Swimming & Diving, Cincinnati
	Stasia Mallin, Soccer, Memphis
2020-21	Alec Trela, Baseball, Memphis
	Jeni Griffin, Swimming & Diving, Tulane
2021-22	Chonnor Ludolph, Track and Field, Wichita State
	Michelle Joyce, Cross Country/Track and Field, Temple