ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Ben Ryan (Washington HS, Washington, Ill.), who recently completed a tremendous basketball career at Augustana and who will graduate on May 22, has been awarded a Postgraduate Scholarship by the NCAA. The $7,500 grant is awarded by the NCAA to "student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition."
 
Ryan is the 36th student-athlete from Augustana to be named an NCAA Postgraduate Scholar since Jeff Maurus was the first Viking winner in 1968. Of that total, 17 have occurred in the last 10 years. Ryan is just the second men's basketball player from Augustana so honored, joining Bruce Hamming, a 1975 NCAA Postgraduate Scholar.
 
The son of Laurie and Jeff Ryan of Washington, Illinois, Ben carries a 3.52 grade point average with biochemistry and pre-medicine majors, as well as minors in mathematics and chemistry. He is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District selection and on March 1, 2016 was named the 161st Viking Academic All-American.
 
A 6' 5", 216-pound forward, Ryan recently completed a playing career that ranks with some of the greatest ever at Augustana. In four seasons, he helped lead the program to a 95-23 record, three straight NCAA Division III Tournament appearances and back-to-back CCIW regular season and tournament titles. He shares the Viking career record for games played at 118. He stepped into the starting lineup in his very first collegiate game and his 117 career starts are more than any other player in Augustana history. He finished his career as the sixth-leading scorer (1,371) and fifth-leading rebounder (793) in school history.
 
Ryan served as a team captain each of the last two years. The Vikings went 56-7 during that time, reaching the NCAA Division III national title game in 2015 and tying school and conference records for wins with a 29-2 mark this year. He averaged 14.0 points and 7.1 rebounds per game this season, shooting .561 from the field and .726 from the free throw line. He earned All-CCIW honors for the third time, all-region honors for the second year in a row and was named to D3hoops.com's All-America second team.
 
Off the court, Ben has been involved with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, for whom he serves as Vice President, and Student Athlete Advisory Council. He's also volunteered at Hope Tree Family Services and for the Augustana Walk for Water and has served as a peer mentor and community advisor as well.