Gardner-Webb's Victor Putter Voted 2022-23 Big South Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Gardner-Webb men’s tennis player
Victor Putter (Pretoria, South Africa) has been voted the 2022-23 Big South Conference Male Scholar-Athletes of the Year, it was announced today by the league office. The annual Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award is voted on by the Big South Sports Information Directors from a pool of each sport’s Scholar-Athlete winner during the past season.
Putter is the first Runnin’ Bulldog since 2010-11 and second overall to be voted the Big South’s Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He concluded his undergraduate career with a 4.00 in mathematics and earned the Big South’s prestigious Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence this past spring. Putter was selected to the Big South Men’s Tennis All-Academic Team for the third consecutive season in 2023, and became the program’s first-ever recipient of the Men’s Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year award. He played most of 2022-23 at No. 2 doubles and went 11-6, in addition to three match-clinching points playing No. 3 singles -- including against Radford in the Big South Semifinals to send GWU to its first-ever Finals. Putter helped Gardner-Webb to a share of the Big South regular-season title, was 3-0 in league matches, picked up seven singles victories, and had a five-match win streak in doubles.
In the voting, Putter finished with 40 points (four first-place votes), ahead of High Point cross country runner
Lorenzo Botter (24 points, three first-place votes), Campbell golfer
Henrik Lilja (19 points, two first-place votes) and Longwood soccer player
Jonas Kalchner (19 points, one first-place vote).