KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association announced its male and female winners for the 2023-24 Ken B. Jones Award at the 2024 MIAA Awards Celebration. Fort Hays State’s Katie Wagner and Pittsburg State’s Mason Strader were named the Association’s student-athletes of the year.
 
 The 2023-24 Ken B. Jones winners were announced on stage at the 2024 MIAA Awards Celebration Monday night, June 3, at the Kansas City Convention Center’s Music Hall in downtown Kansas City, Mo.
 
Mason Strader and Katie Wagner were honored as the 2023-24 Ken B. Jones Award winners. The Ken B. Jones Award, presented by Summit Pointe Financial Group, recognizes the Association’s top male and female student-athletes every academic year.
 
Brief biographies on this year’s Ken B. Jones Award recipients are below. To view all 2023-24 Ken B. Jones finalists, click here.
 
For more information on the Association’s Ken B. Jones Award presented by Summit Pointe Financial Group, visit theMIAA.com/KenBJones.
 
MASON STRADER – PITTSBURG STATE CROSS COUNTRY AND TRACK & FIELD
Mason Strader is a redshirt junior from Holton, Kan. on the Gorillas cross country and track and field teams. Strader helped Pitt State sweep MIAA cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field titles in the 2023-24 seasons. He also helped the Gorillas sweep the Division II national titles as Pitt State men won the program’s second straight team title at the 2024 NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships and the program’s third consecutive team title at the 2024 NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships. Strader earned All-America honors for the seventh and eighth times in his decorated career during the 2024 indoor track season, placing seventh in the mile run (4:20.14) and helping the distance medley relay to a fifth-place final (9:48.72) at the 2024 NCAA Division II Indoor National Championships. He then added his career ninth All-America honor with a fourth-place finish in the 1,500-meter run at the 2024 outdoor national championship (3:54.76). Strader also became a 12-time All-MIAA performer and a five-time MIAA Champion in the indoor season by claiming track titles in the mile and the distance medley relay, while also adding All-MIAA honors in the 800-meter run and the 1,500-meter run at the 2024 outdoor championship. He set his fourth Pitt State school record this indoor season with a program-best time of 8:04.52 in the 3,000 meters. Strader also earned All-MIAA honors and All-Central Region honors in cross country, helping Pitt State to the 2023 MIAA Championship and a program-best 11th-place finish at the 2023 NCAA Division II National Championships.
 
Strader has proven to also be an All-America in the classroom. He is currently pursuing his second degree from the university, owning a 3.87 grade point average as a technology major with an emphasis in construction. Strader graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architectural manufacturing management in May of 2023. He’s a five-time MIAA Scholar-Athlete and has been named to the Association’s Academic Honor Roll each season. Strader is also an active participant in Gorillas the local Trunk or Treat event and volunteers his time working with the community’s trash pickup project. He’s also helped organize and boxed toys for Crawford County families in need for the annual Salvation Army Christmas Troy Drive, participated in a campus hotdog feed sponsored by the Kansas Technology Center for KTC students and instructors, and volunteered at local high school track meets.
 
KATIE WAGNER – FORT HAYS STATE BASKETBALL
Katie Wagner is a point guard from Maize, Kan. on the Tigers women’s basketball team.  She collected the league’s highest honors in the 2023-24 season, being named the MIAA Player of the Year and the MIAA Basketball Championship’s Most Outstanding Player. She also received All-America honors from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) and was a First Team All-Region selection by the D2CCA. Wagner was one of the league’s top scorers and led all shooters with 210 made field goals on 44.7 percent shooting in the 2023-24 season. Starting every game for the Tigers, Wagner averaged 16.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. She also ranked second in the league in minutes per game (34.3), made free throws (122) and steals per game (2.3). She finished the season with 14 double-doubles, running her career total to 36. Wagner scored in double figures in 30 out of 33 games for the season with a season-high of 32 points in an early season win over eventual national champion Minnesota State. This season marked her third straight season scoring over 450, finishing the year with 569 total points. She now ranks fourth in career scoring (1,732 pts) and second in career rebounds (965) in the Fort Hays State record books.
 
Wagner graduated with her bachelor’s degree in accounting last December, earning magna cum laude honors with a 3.87 grade point average. She now owns a 4.0 grade point average while pursuing her master’s degree in business administration and was recently nominated as the Accounting Student of the Year by the FHSU Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting. She’s a three-time MIAA Scholar-Athlete and was named to the MIAA’s Academic Honor Roll each season.
 
Following her graduation last December, Wagner was selected by the accounting faculty for a Graduate Teaching Assistantship. She also completed an accounting/analyst internship at Koch Industries in Wichita, Kansas in the summer of 2023, where she learned and developed new skills through hands-on experience in the accounting profession. Wagner created a new deferred revenue schedule for the business she supported at Koch Industries and conducted balance sheet reconciliations, collaborated with a team on month-end closing procedures, and actively participated in identifying process improvements and cost-saving opportunities.
 
Wagner was nominated by FHSU Athletic Department and selected by the MIAA to attend NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in Bethesda, Md. in April of 2024. She’s an engaged member of Encounter Young Adults – a Christian ministry affiliated with Celebration Community Church and has volunteered for the Night to Shine – a prom sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation, honoring individuals in the community with special needs. Outside of basketball, academics and her numerous volunteer commitments in the community, Wagner also partnered with Team IMPACT – a non-profit organization that matches children facing serious illnesses and disabilities with college sports teams.