43 Student Athletes, Eight Teams at Cloud County Community College Earn NJCAA Academic Honors
The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) has released the 2021-2022 NJCAA Academic Teams of the Year and NJCAA All-Academic honorees to honor both teams and individuals for excellence in the classroom.
A total of eight Cloud County Community College Athletic Teams finished the full academic year with a grade point average above 3.0 to earn Academic Team of the Year honors while a total of 43 student-athletes earned NJCAA All-Academic honors for completing the year with a GPA of 3.60 or higher. Of the 43 student-athletes earning the distinction, 16 earned First-Team NJCAA All-Academic for finishing the academic year with a 4.0 GPA.
Academic Team of the Year honorees for Cloud County including the CCCC softball team who had the department's highest GPA of 3.71 which ranked sixth among 178 softball teams that were honored by the NJCAA as Academic Teams of the Year. The next highest team GPA in the T-Bird athletic department would come courtesy of the baseball team with a 3.41 team GPA which ranked 18th out of 120 honored teams by the NJCAA while both the women's outdoor track and field (26th highest GPA among qualified schools) and the volleyball team (93rd highest team GPA among qualified teams) would both finish the year with a team GPA of 3.2. Other CCCC teams to earn Academic Team of the Year status included the women's cross country team (3.19 GPA), women's basketball team (3.19 GPA), men's cross country team (3.16 GPA), and the women's indoor track and field team (3.0 GPA). Of the eight Cloud County teams, four of the eight would finish in the top-25 team GPAs within their respective sport.
In addition to having 16 student-athletes earn First-Team NJCAA All-Academic honors, the T-Birds would also see 13 student-athletes earn Second-Team NJCAA All-Academic honors for finishing the year with a GPA of 3.80-3.99. The remaining 14 student-athletes honored by the NJCAA earned Third-Team NJCAA All-Academic honors for finishing the year the academic year with a GPA between 3.60 and 3.79. Both the Cloud County baseball and softball teams would account for 10 NJCAA All-Academic honorees with volleyball having the third-most honorees in the department with five. The remaining 19 honorees would come from the men's cross country team (four), men's basketball (three), men's track and field (three), women's track and field (three), women's basketball (two), women's cross country (two), and wrestling (two) teams.
NJCAA All-Academic First Team (4.0 GPA)
Awet Beraki - Cross County
Kelsey Bohnsack - Softball
Kenzie Cooper - Volleyball
Natasha Dooley - Volleyball
Zach Ferris - Wrestling
John Green - Baseball
Rae Ann Hartwig - Softball
Mariah Janda - Volleyball
Mia Manley - Women's Track and Field (Indoor & Outdoor)
McKenna Mayhew - Softball
Joel Ostrom - Wrestling
Lisette Pfortmiller - Volleyball
Rans Sanders - Baseball
Griffin Stuewe - Baseball
Ty Wevers - Baseball
Brock Wollin - Baseball
NJCAA All-Academic Second Team (3.80 – 3.99 GPA)
Alexis Billings - Softball
Delaney Exon - Softball
Shayna Fila - Softball
Freider Fornasari - Men's Track and Field (Indoor & Outdoor)
Karson Green - Baseball
Jose Julian Avila - Cross Country
Kyra Meyer - Softball
Nikola Milojevic - Men's Basketball
Ben Okraska - Men's Track and Field (Indoor & Outdoor)
Tom Poole - Baseball
Paula Puzule - Women's Basketball
Grace Utz - Softball
Brooklyn Zoeller - Women's Basketball
NJCAA All-Academic Third Team (3.60 – 3.79 GPA)
Travis Beetch - Men's Basketball
Ella Caudill - Softball
Alexander Diaz - Baseball
Michael Iyali - Cross Country
Ryleigh Jones - Softball
Edwin Kipainoi - Cross Country
Clarissa Koch - Cross Country / Women's Track and Field (Indoor & Outdoor)
Linus Limo - Cross Country
Pamela Milano - Cross Country / Women's Track and Field (Indoor & Outdoor)
Willie Ponce - Baseball
Ian Riley - Baseball
Corey Sawyer Jr. - Men's Basketball
Daniel Siaffa - Men's Track and Field (Indoor & Outdoor)
Camryn Wessel - Volleyball