20 BYU athletes honored as All-Academic Athletes

PROVO -- The BYU men's and women's track and field teams were recognized for their hard work off the track as the US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced the All-Academic Track and Field team. The men's team had the seventh-highest combined GPA in the nation with a 3.15 and the women's team had the 13th highest GPA with a 3.34. Nineteen Division I men's teams were honored and 61 women's teams, putting the Cougars in some elite company.

Leading the men's team was freshman Trevor Heiner with a 4.0 GPA. He is one of only seven male athletes on the All-Academic list to have a perfect record. He is joined by teammates Mathew Anderson, Miles Batty, Nathan Rencher, Robbie Pratt, David Pendergrass, Whitney Neves, Meelis Kosk, Jacob Gustafsson, Jason Dorais, Dustin Bybee and Bryce Bergen. The Cougar men have the most All-Academic athletes of any other schools recognized.

"Not only are our athletes some of the best in the country but they are also good students," men's coach Mark Robison. "That shows that our students are here to get a degree. If we have great athletes and they do poorly in school, or they do great in school and don't do well in their sport, we aren't doing our job."

Challis Firl posted the highest GPA for the women's team. Her almost-perfect scores put her near the top of the list that featured 14 perfect GPA's. Her fellow Cougars Makenzie Iorg, Tiffany Arrhenius, Kamila Rywelska, Kelly Furr, Amy Fowler, Chelsea McKell and Amanda Lonsway also made the cut. Wichita State, Nebraska and Arizona State had the most females represented with nine athletes on the All-Academic team. BYU, Colorado State and Purdue each had eight athletes represented.

With hours of practice and training, study time is hard to come by. For these athletes their sport is quite like a part time job. These All-Academic honorees have put in long hours at school to keep up their grades and were major contributors to the team during the season. All individual honors are above the required 3.2 GPA, and teams being recognized have a team GPA of 3.0 or higher.