(KTNC) -  Peru State senior defensive lineman Zach Lempka is one of 170 candidates selected by the National Football Foundation as a semi-finalist for the organization’s national scholar-athlete awards.
 The nominees are semifinalists for the 2013 William V. Campbell Trophy, which is given to the nation’s top scholar-athlete.  The 170 semifinalists are the most since 2006, when the nomination standards were increased to require a minimum grade-point-average of 3.2.
 Lempka is one of just seven NAIA football players to be honored and the only one from the Heart of America Athletic Conference. He is an elementary education major, and presently has a 3.598 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.  He’s been on Peru State’s Dean’s List and was named a HAAC Scholar-Athlete last year.