Wednesday, August 21, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. – Student athletes from five different Great Northwest Athletic Conference member institutions earned recognition by the Division 2 Athletic Directors Association in receiving Academic Achievement Awards.

The award winners, announced Wednesday, are a collection of Division II student athletes from across the country who hold a grade point average of 3.5 or higher with at least two years of college level work under their belts.

Overall, the GNAC was represented by 162 student athletes. Western Washington had 42 ADA recipients. Of the Vikings’ award winners, 11 were women’s track and field members and eight more were on the women’s rowing squad. WWU’s men’s track team also boasted eight award winners.

Seattle Pacific placed 40 student athletes on the ADA list. Volleyball was the sport with the most Falcons recognized as six team members received the ADA award.

Montana State Billings had 46 ADA recipients and Alaska Fairbanks, despite a limited number of total sports,  had 28. UAF was led by 15 cross country participants.

The fifth GNAC school recognized by the ADA was Simon Fraser with six student athletes getting the nod.

New D2ADA records were set in terms of total number of institutions recognized (171) as well as total number of student athletes receiving the award (6,881).