INA, Ill. (June 18, 2019) - Rend Lake College has nominated 21 student athletes and four teams for their high academic achievement in the 2018-19 year. The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) will honor the students in upcoming weeks.
Five different Warrior teams had at least one athlete nominated for their prowess in the classroom. Student athletes earning a GPA (grade point average) of 4.0 on a 4.0 scale are nominated for the NJCAA First-Team Academic Excellence Award, the highest award available. Athletes earning between a 3.80 and 3.99 GPA are nominated for the NJCAA Second-Team Academic Achievement Award. The last award is for students earning GPAs between 3.60 and 3.79: the NJCAA Third-Team Academic Achievement Award.
Warrior Baseball led all sports in nominations. They were anchored by a trio of First-Team Award nominees in Mac Hickman, Blake Wolferding and Edward Zivic. They were followed by teammates Brandon Davis with a 3.91 GPA, Townsend Ellis with a 3.81 GPA and Caleb Reinhardt with a 3.81 GPA, all nominated for the Second-Team Award. Dalton Banach’s 3.7 GPA, Austin Brock’s 3.78, Noah Brown’s 3.62, Jase Felker’s 3.77, Garrett Fritz’s 3.7, Brant Glidewell’s 3.72, Darick Hayes’s 3.6 and Trevor Nicholson’s 3.68 GPA all qualified them for the Third-Team award nominations.
As a team, baseball earned a collective 3.32 GPA, nominating them as an All-Academic Team. Other teams to earn team nominations were Women’s Golf with a 3.38 GPA, Women’s Softball with a 3.12 GPA and Women’s Basketball with a 3.06.
Individually, Lady Warrior golfers Grace Coleman and Sabryn Griffin; Women’s Basketball’s Afron Frank and Autumn Gunner; and Softball’s Chelsea Hill all had perfect 4.0s for First-Team nominations.
Men’s Golf’s Dawson Brown posted a 3.91 for a Second-Team nomination, and Softball’s Lindsey Seidel rounded out nominations with a 3.71, good for an Third-Team nod.