Senior, Cross Country and Track & Field student-athlete, Seth Bywater, was recently awarded Men's Cross-Country SUNY Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Bywater has recorded a 3.96 overall GPA in the Mechatronics program at SUNY Delhi. He has a historic career, being the first Delhi athlete to be an NCAA National Qualifier in any sport, and has been a recipient of a SUNY Chancellor Award for Student Excellence.

In his senior year, Bywater placed second overall in the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) championships out of a field of 74 runners. He would be selected to his second All-NAC first team and then would be the first Bronco to finish at the NCAA Regionals, placing 34th out of 172 runners.

The SUNY Scholar Athlete Awards recognized outstanding academic and athletic success in 29 different sports and are presented three times a year to coincide with the specific sports contested in the fall, winter and spring seasons.

The honors were announced on Tuesday, Jan. 31, by Chancellor John B. King, Jr., from the SUNY System in Albany, N.Y.

The Fall SUNY Scholar Athlete Awards recognized 21 student-athletes from SUNY colleges and universities sponsoring intercollegiate athletics at the four-year and two-year levels who were nominated and voted upon by representatives of their respective institutions 

Nominating information includes cumulative grade point average, current and career statistics, and athletic and academic honors.

More than 14,000 student-athletes compete at SUNY institutions representing 53 different colleges and universities at the NCAA Division I, NCAA Division III/USCAA and NJCAA levels and are eligible for the awards. 

The 19 institutions that make up the NCAA Division III/USCAA Category and include Alfred State, Brockport, Buffalo State, Canton, Cobleskill, Cortland, Delhi, Farmingdale, Fredonia, Geneseo, Maritime, Morrisville, New Paltz, Old Westbury, Oneonta, Oswego, Plattsburgh, Potsdam and SUNY Poly.