COMPLETE SUNY RELEASE
ALBANY | The State University of New York released the recipients of its 2026 spring Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards, and Farmingdale State College senior baseball player
Richie Heyder (Holbrook, N.Y.) and junior golfer
Luke O'Grady-Rodgers (Carmel, N.Y.) were both honored as winners in their respective sports.
The SUNY Scholar Athlete Award honors student-athletes for combining academic achievement with success in the arena of athletic competition. Students are nominated by their institutions based on their cumulative grade point average, current and career statistics, and athletic and academic honors. In the spring, fall and winter, student-athletes from each division are selected as winners, and in July two student athletes are selected as the overall men's and women's winners from each division.
Heyder was a First Team Academic All-American and D3baseball.com First Team All-American selection this season after leading all NCAA divisions with a .608 on-base percentage. The business management major and Skyline Conference Player of the Year ranked third in Division III with an .897 slugging percentage, seventh in both batting average (.470) and walks per game (1.05), and 16th with an average of 0.49 doubles per game.
Also a business management major, O'Grady-Rodgers received GCAA PING All-Region II and First Team All-Skyline Conference kudos in his first season at Farmingdale State, leading the Rams to a Skyline title and berth in the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championship. He registered a 75.1 scoring average across 25 rounds this season, good for the ninth best scoring average for a single season in program history, and earned four top-5 finishes on the campaign.
