ST. LOUIS -
Becca Hittner of Drake University women's basketball has been selected as the female recipient of the Missouri Valley Conference's Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete Award, Valley Commissioner Doug Elgin announced Monday, June 8. She is joined by the male recipient, Dustin May of UNI men's track and field.
The MVC Faculty Athletics Representatives Committee selected Hittner and May from a field of league student-athletes who met the award criteria, including academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership. Hittner is Drake's first-ever female recipient of the prestigious award joining former men's track and field and cross country standout Reed Fischer and men's tennis standout Alen Salibasic, who earned the honor in 2017 and 2015, respectively.
In 2019-20, Hittner was named the Jackie Stiles MVC Player of the Year for the third consecutive year, becoming just the third Valley player to win the top award three times. Hittner led the Valley in scoring for the third-straight season averaging 18.9 points per game in 2019-20. Her career totals in several statistical categories rank among the all-time leaders in Drake and MVC history. She scored 2,133 career points, which ranks sixth at Drake and seventh in conference history. Hittner's school-record 43.4 career three-point percentage is seventh in conference history and her 258 career three-pointers are second in Drake history and T-11th all-time in the Valley.
In addition to being named MVC Player of the Year for the third-straight season, Hittner collected several league and national honors in recognition for her outstanding final season at Drake. She was selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team and the MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team. Also, she was chosen to the All-MVC First Team for the fourth-straight season. Hittner is just the eighth MVC player and fourth Drake player to be picked to the All-MVC First Team four times. She was a two-time WBCA All-America Honorable Mention selection.
Hittner earned a degree in marketing with a minor in data analytics, achieving a 3.97 cumulative grade point average. While at Drake, Hittner was an active volunteer, serving time in various organizations, including Meals from the Heartland, Habitat for Humanity, Picnic and Play, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the American Marketing Association.
The first-ever recipient of the Honda Award of Merit in 1996 for outstanding achievement in women's collegiate athletics, Dr. Charlotte West was a driving force for more than 40 years in the area of advancement of women's sports. On June 30, 1998, she retired from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, after serving in the capacities of head coach, associate athletics director, interim athletics director and senior woman administrator during her 41 years with the Missouri Valley Conference-member institution. West coached five women's sports from 1957-75 and, in 1982, was among the first group of women inducted into the SIUC Athletics Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014. SIU named its softball stadium after West in 2003 and the NCAA named a room in its new national office building in Indianapolis in West's honor in 2012.
