RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas – The Great American Conference has selected recent Ouachita Baptist University graduate Elise Knight as the league's female scholar-athlete of the year for 2025-26.

Additionally, Knight has earned Second Team Academic All-America honors from College Sports Communicators, also announced on Wednesday.



These two honors are the latest on an already lengthy list of accolades and achievements for Knight's senior season at Ouachita. Over the past four years, she excelled in cross country, track & field, and academics.

The Jonesboro, Arkansas native was a multi-year All-GAC performer in both cross country and track & field, a member of two GAC cross country championship teams (2022 & 2024), an all-region selection this past season in track, a qualifier for the NCAA Division II National Championships this past year in steeplechase, a multi-year winner of the GAC Elite Scholar Athlete Award in both cross country and track, a member of the Ouachita President's List throughout her career, an honor's graduate with a perfect 4.0 GPA in a challenging academic field in biophysics and professional chemistry, and the winner of the NCAA Division II Elite Scholar Athlete Award for women's track & field.

To go along with her unblemished GPA and the awards from sports organizations, Knight also won the Arkansas INBRE Fall Conference Oral Presentation Chemistry Award, the Central Arkansas American Chemistry Society Student Section Leadership Award, and the OBU Harvey Research Award. She was also named Ouachita's outstanding chemistry graduate and the outstanding student in organic chemistry from the ACS. Knight has two first-author publications and is a contributor to four total publications in the Scientific Research Journal.

Knight also wrote a winning grant application for an extensive outreach program targeting local high school chemistry teachers in rural areas to provide lab training and lab kits. The first of two "It's Elemental" days was carried out in Spring 2026, which included teaching approximately 30 students and teachers how to conduct three different labs.

Knight is just the second student-athlete from Ouachita to earn the title of GAC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Kori Bullard Kornet won in back-to-back seasons in 2017 and 2018 representing Ouachita volleyball and women's basketball. Knight is now the first Ouachita women's cross country and track & field athlete to earn CSC Academic All-America honors.

"On behalf of the cross country and track & field programs, I congratulate Elise on this well-deserved award," said Ouachita Head Coach Steve Guymon. "She truly defines the ideal student-athlete. She is a humble and outstanding leader. We are all incredibly proud of her."

Knight graduated this past May from Ouachita with a bachelor's degree in biophysics and professional chemistry. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Arkansas.