RICHARDSON, Texas – Angelo State baseball standout Austin Beck has been named the 2026 Lone Star Conference Fred Jacoby Male Academic Athlete of the Year, the conference announced Thursday morning.

Beck, a redshirt senior from Allen, Texas, earned the conference's highest academic honor after maintaining a perfect 4.0 GPA while pursuing his MBA.

During the 2025-26 academic year, Beck was named a College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-American First Team selection and earned CSC Academic All-District honors. He also received Angelo State's Male Athletic Academic Excellence Award at the 2026 Holland's Awards Banquet and was named the Lone Star Conference Baseball Academic Player of the Year. Beck concluded his career as a 10-time member of the LSC Commissioner's Honor Roll, earning recognition every semester during his time at Angelo State.

On the field, Beck cemented himself as one of the most accomplished players in NCAA Division II history. He became the first player in Division II baseball history to surpass 300 career runs scored, finishing his career as the NCAA Division II all-time leader in the category.

A First Team All-Lone Star Conference selection, Beck also earned All-South Central Region honors from the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) this past season.

By the end of his career, Beck broke the program's all-time records in eight career categories: hits, games played, games started, RBIs, runs scored, stolen bases, triples and walks.

The Fred Jacoby Academic Athlete of the Year awards, named in honor of the late Lone Star Conference commissioner, recognize the league's top male and female student-athletes. Winners are selected by a vote of the conference's sports information directors from the Academic Athlete of the Year recipients in each conference-sponsored sport during the 2025-26 academic year.