In a career filled with countless academic and athletic accomplishments, Valparaiso University men’s golf senior Caleb VanArragon (Blaine, Minn. / Blaine) earned his highest honor yet on Wednesday.

VanArragon was named a First Team At-Large Academic All-American by College Sports Communicators (CSC, previously known as CoSIDA), becoming the first player in program history to earn this honor. The Minnesota native owns a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average as a biology and statistics double major and led the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring average with a program-record 71.08 this season. He earned an at-large NCAA Regional berth based on his body of work on the golf course in 2022-2023.

VanArragon becomes Valpo’s 15^th all-time First-Team Academic All-American across all sports. Valpo Athletics boasts 40 total Academic All-Americans (including first, second and third team) all-time, 28 in the last 19 years and at least one in 17 of those 19 years. He becomes the department’s first First-Team Academic All-American since Rylee Cookerly (volleyball) in 2021.

The CSC men’s at-large teams include student-athletes from the following sports – golf, gymnastics, fencing, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, volleyball, water polo and wrestling. VanArragon was one of 17 student-athletes in the country across all of those sports named to the first team and one of four men’s golfers nationally to earn first-team recognition, joining Wilson Andress (Georgia Southern), Ford Clegg (Mississippi State) and Ryggs Johnston (Arizona State).

VanArragon is a three-time MVC Elite 17 Award Winner, three-time MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, three-time CoSIDA/CSC Academic All-District recipient and earned the 2023 Valpo Laurel Award for the graduating senior student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average. He also earned the MVC State Farm Good Neighbor Award this spring. In competition, VanArragon is a four-time All-MVC selection and the 2019-20 MVC Newcomer of the Year.