SHAWNEE – Oklahoma Baptist wide receiver
Nick Harris earned All-Great American Conference First Team honors on Wednesday as the league announced its end-of-year awards.
Harris is only the sixth Bison wideout to attain top honors and first since Keilahn Harris garnered All-GAC First Team accolades in 2022.
In addition to Harris, a whopping 13 players were named to the All-GAC Third Team. On offense, those included
Deuce Wise,
Garrett Vaughn,
Haydn Thornton and
Andrew Sawyer.
Defensively,
Jahden Brown,
Aditya Singh,
Bryce Starlin,
Colt Humphrey,
Brady Luff,
Chase Whitebear and
Jojo Wash were voted on. Along special teams,
Carter Lowry and
Matthew Young were honored.
Harris was the GAC leader with 49 catches, and his 749 receiving yards were good for second in the league. He also pulled in five touchdowns, a mark tied for third. For Vaughn, he notched 36 catches for 394 yards which were slotted inside the top-30 of the league. At the tight end position, Thornton notched 13 catches, three of which went for touchdowns. That tied OBU's D2 record for scoring grabs by a tight end.
Rounding out the offensive selections were Sawyer and Wise. For Sawyer, an offensive lineman, he is a repeat All-GAC honoree. He helped Bison quarterbacks throw for 249.1 yards per game, the second-best mark in the league. As for Wise, a running back, he was eighth in the GAC in yards per game (61.6). He also finished with 678 rushing yards, five touchdowns and a long run of 54 yards.
Defensively, Humphrey was ninth in the league with 80 tackles while
Jahden Brown finished eighth with 10.0 tackles-for-loss. Brown was also slotted fifth in sacks (5.5). Luff was inside the top-17 of conference defenders, totaling 57 tackles, two forced fumbles and two pass break-ups.
In the secondary, Whitebear was tied for the league lead with nine PBUs while Wash as slotted 22nd with 65 tackles, a 5.9 per-game average. As for Singh and Starling, their first time on the All-GAC squad saw that defensive line duo register 47.0 and 17.0 total tackles, respectively.
Rounding out OBU's selections were Lowry and Young. A sophomore kicker, Lowry's 12 field goals were a school record and most in the GAC. Young finished fourth in the league with a 24.6 yards-per-return average, and he had a school-record and GAC-long 100-yard touchdown return against Arkansas Tech on Nov. 8.
Outside the playing field, these players were named to the GAC Academic Honor Roll:
Ben Burchfield,
Yonas Daniel,
Edric Lambert,
Jacob Ostrowski,
Caden Peevey,
Parker Stephens,
Beck Vargas,
Austin Vincent, Vaughn, Lowry and Harris.
