Press Release
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – On Monday, the Great American Conference announced that a record 552 student-athletes achieved Academic All-Conference honors in the sports of men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track & field, baseball and softball, an increase of 42 from the prior high, set last year.
Harding led with 73 student-athletes earning GAC Academic All-Conference marks. The Lady Bisons collected the most All-Academic selections in women’s tennis and women’s track & field. The 18 All-Academic honorees in women’s track & field represented the highest total for any single sport. The men’s track and field program also paced the league.
Oklahoma Baptist ranked second with 71 All-Academic performers. The Bison led the conference in both men’s and women’s golf. Oklahoma Baptist joined Harding as the only two GAC schools with multiple All-Academic performers in all eight sports.
Southern Nazarene finished third while Northwestern Oklahoma State took fourth. In men’s basketball, the GAC regular-season champion Crimson Storm tied for the GAC lead with East Central and Southeastern Oklahoma State. Their men’s and women’s track & field teams as well as their men’s and women’s golf teams all ranked second or in a tie for second.
The Rangers’ women’s basketball teams each led the GAC and the baseball team shared the lead with Ouachita. The 17 selections in baseball ranked as the second-best total for any one sport. Arkansas Tech led in softball with 15 honorees and Southern Arkansas paced men’s tennis.
“Division II places the balance of athletic pursuit and academic excellence in its highest regards,” GAC Commissioner Will Prewitt said. “We again shattered our record for All-Academic honorees. I commend all of these student-athletes for maintaining their commitment excellence in the classroom during this unprecedented year.”
GAC baseball student-athletes garnered the most All-Academic selections, 119, followed by 108 from softball, 85 in women’s basketball and 84 from women’s track & field. For the full 2019-20 academic year, 966 student-athletes earned All-Academic honors, 85 more than the previous single-year high for the conference.
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.
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