RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – The Great American Conference office announced that 414 student-athletes achieved Academic All-Conference honors in the sports of football, volleyball, men's and women's soccer and men's and women's cross country with Oklahoma Baptist leading the conference with 52 selections.
The Bison produced a league-high 22 All-Academic selections in football while the GAC champion men's cross country team led the conference with eight All-Academic honorees. The OBU women's soccer team had 10 on the team.
"I'm incredibly proud of the tremendous work our student-athletes do in the classroom," said OBU athletics director
Robert Davenport. "It is a testament to the culture of excellence that our coaches have instilled in each of our programs and the hard work our student-athletes put in both on the field and especially in the classroom. We're grateful for the tremendous support system the university has created to foster this kind of academic success by our student-athletes."
GAC football student-athletes garnered the most All-Academic selections, 149, followed by 63 from both men's and women's soccer. Rogers State, the GAC Men's Soccer Champions, tallied a league-leading 11 All-Academic selections. East Central's 13 All-Academic honorees in women's soccer led for that respective sport.
"I commend all of these student-athletes for finding balance between their work in the classroom and on the field of play," GAC Commissioner Will Prewitt said. "We continue to see records set with this honor. I applaud all of the administrators and coaches at our institutions as they continue raise the GAC's standard of excellence."
For student-athletes to be recognized on the Academic All-Conference team, they must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing (true freshmen and redshirt freshmen are not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at the nominating institution. In addition, their grade-point average must be a minimum of 3.30 based on the 4.0 system. The GPA shall be cumulative for the athlete's entire collegiate career.
Football (22)
Josh Arnold
Hayden Ashley
Zach Blevins
Jadon Bly
Joshua Cornell
Jace Garrison
Preston Haire
Will Kohman
Damon Landis
Taylor Mante
Lane Martin
Noah McGraw
Ethan McKasson
Robert Sawler
Dillon Smith
Dean Van Vors
Noah Velicer
Luke Wendl
Abel Wills
Christian Wright
Men's Cross Country (8)
Steven Clark
Blake Cope
Caleb Dyer
Jarrett Ellis
Garrett Elmore
Noah Eskew
Avery Hanna
Cameron Mills
Men's Soccer (5)
Peterson Costa
Parker Lawter
Hebert Lima
Riolan Mello
Michael Stewart
Volleyball (3)
Kaylee Buell
Brecken Roquemore
Taryn Weber
Women's Cross Country (4)
Allison Derry
Emma Downing
Sarah O'Bryan
Shane Rinner
Women's Soccer (10)
Kelsey Bumgarner
Emily Griffith
Lara Haring-Lovett
Tori Kitchel
Morgan Krispense
Morgan Laplante
Reagan Mann
Savannah Shoffner
Hannah White
Maddison Williams
