OREM, Utah – The Western Wrestling Conference announced its All-Academic Team and Coaches’ Honor Roll for the 2010-11 wrestling season.
Three South Dakota State student-athletes balanced school work and mat time to meet the league’s highest academic standards, the All-Academic Team, while 11 made the Coaches’ Honor Roll.
Sophomore Aaron Pickrel earns his All-Academic Team honor with the second highest GPA in the WWC with a 3.86 GPA as a biology/pre-medicine major. Pickrel also earned a spot on the National Wrestling Coaches Association All-Academic Team a few weeks ago.
Also appearing on the WWC All-Academic Team are sophomore Tyler Johnson, a manufacturing engineering major with a 3.397 GPA, and junior David Michaud, a journalism major with a 3.368 GPA.
The All-Academic Team recognizes student-athletes who secured a minimum 3.2 cumulative GPA, were a starter or key reserve during the 2010-11 season and are a sophomore or higher in academic standing.
Eleven more Jacks earned spots on the Coaches’ Honor Roll. To qualify for the Coaches’ Honor Roll, student-athletes must maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA.
Coaches’ Honor Roll
Joe Brewster, 3.087 GPA, graphic design
Bryce Drefke, 3.097 GPA, pre-nursing
Jimmy Hamilton, 3.0 GPA, civil engineering
Kevin Kelly, 3.195 GPA, health, physical education and recreation
Rex Lyon, 3.517 GPA, architecture
Seth Moe, 3.613 GPA, pharmacy
John Nething II, 3.143 GPA, pre-economics
Tyler Palmer, 3.163 GPA, pre-nursing
Joe Rasmussen, 3.128 GPA, economics
Tony Vaske, 3.556 GPA, mathematics
Andrew Youngblom, 3.781 GPA, architecture
The Air Force Academy boasts the most wrestlers on the two combined teams with a total of 16, while SDSU and Utah Valley followed with 14 grapplers each on the two lists.
The 2010-11 total of 71 student-athletes named to the two lists is a record for the WWC and a large increase from the 56 honored for academics a year ago.
Additionally, as a team SDSU owned the fourth highest GPA among Division I wrestling programs, as honored by the NWCA a few weeks ago. The Jacks followed only Harvard, American and Columbia.