ROCK HILL, S.C. --- Tusculum College's Jonas Winkelmann has been named the 2016 South Atlantic Conference Men's Tennis Scholar Athlete of the Year. Winkelmann earns this honor for the first time in his career.

This marks the fifth consecutive year that a Pioneer has earned this honor which recognizes academic achievement, athletic accomplishment, community service and leadership. The SAC Scholar Athlete Award is presented to one male and one female student-athlete in each of the conference's 18 championship sports. The awards are selected by the league's Faculty Athletic Representatives Committee.

Winkelmann, a senior from Böblingen, Germany, graduated with a 3.68 cumulative grade point average in business administration. He has earned Dean's List, Athletic Director's Honor Roll and SAC Commissioner Honor Roll honors in each of his four years at Tusculum. He was also named to the Charles Oliver Gray Honors List all four years at TC to go along with earning CoSIDA Academic All-America® honors during his junior season.

"Jonas is a very talented student and athlete that supports his talent through hard work in the classroom and on the court," said Tusculum head tennis coach Adam Jackson. "He is exactly the kind of student, athlete, and person we are trying to recruit and develop here at Tusculum. His achievements as a player and as a student are a testament to the amount of effort he puts into everything he does."

During the 2016 season, Winkelmann posted a 13-9 singles record, including an 8-3 mark in South Atlantic Conference play. His doubles tandem went 20-2 overall and 10-1 in league action.

Winkelmann has earned All-SAC honors in each of his four seasons as a Pioneer and was named the Astroturf South Atlantic Conference Player of Week three times in his career. A three-time ITA Scholar-Athlete, he was a key player for a team that went 37-5 in the SAC during his time on the squad and earned two South Atlantic Conference team titles. He finished his career with a 60-22 record in singles play and a 74-11 record in doubles action.

In the community, Winkelmann has served as a volunteer at a local hospital and has spent time with Project "Tennis in Schools" to promote the sport of tennis at area elementary schools. Winkelmann also participated in Tusculum Tennis Adopt-a-Family initiative to help a local family during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. He has been a youth tennis clinic volunteer in his home country of Germany and has worked with the Greene County Ministerial Alliance Food Bank as a volunteer.

Winkelman has also stayed busy helping out on the Tusculum campus. He is a member of the TC President's Society and served on the Tusculum Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and attended the South Atlantic Conference Leadership Conference in Hickory, North Carolina.

A Tusculum men's tennis student-athlete has earned the SAC Scholar Athlete of the Year Award in seven of the last eight years. Hunter Beal was the inaugural TC recipient in 2009, while Henrique Rodrigues earned the award in 2010. Luis Zamora was the 2012 recipient, while Lukas Winkelmann (Jonas' brother) was a three-time honoree in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

- SAC -