EAST STROUDSBURG – East Stroudsburg University junior Joseph Hoy has been recognized as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference's "Champion Scholar" for the 2013-14 Wrestling Championships, the conference announced Saturday at Edinboro.

Hoy (Mountainside, N.J./Governor Livingston), an Economics major, has a 3.77 grade-point average in his academic career, which began at North Carolina State before transferring to ESU prior to the 2012-13 academic year.

He is the second straight Warrior to receive the award. Tony Vorndran was the recipient a year ago, entering the PSAC Championships with a 4.0 GPA as a History major.

Hoy, ESU's starter at 141 pounds, enters the PSAC Championships with a 2-6 record this season with both wins coming in the consolation round at the Doug Parker Invitational at Springfield (Mass.) on November 23. He had four dual wins in his first season as a starter last year.

He is ESU's third "Champion Scholar" overall, joining Vorndran and Lisa Lower, who was recognized at the PSAC Cross Country Championships in the fall of 2011.

The PSAC Champion Scholar Awards are modeled after the NCAA's Elite 88 award and honors the student-athlete with the top GPA who is competing at the site of each of the PSAC's 23 championship finals.

The selection criteria for the Champion Scholar Awards is identical to that of the NCAA Elite 88 awards, which honor the student-athlete with the top GPA at each of the championship finals sites of the 88 NCAA championships across all three divisions – I, II and III.

The 2013-14 academic year marks the third year of the Champion Scholar Awards.