(July 11, 2022) Charlotte, North Carolina – Coming off the fourth year of Bucks Athletics at UA Rich Mountain, the athletic department continues to trend in the upward direction both athletically and academically. The Bucks won three Region II Championships this past year: Women's Cross Country, Men's Soccer, and Baseball. In the classroom, the student-athletes got it done as well, graduating 76 athletes with an associate degree in the May ceremony.
In previous years, the Bucks have only had one team achieve being a NJCAA All-Academic Team: Softball in 2020-2021. This season, FIVE teams got the job done in the classroom with a 3.0+ Team GPA:
- Women's Cross Country: 3.41
- Men's Cross Country: 3.2
- Women's Soccer: 3.14
- Softball: 3.22
- Baseball: 3.17
With these teams' overall success, UARM has had a record high of NJCAA Academic All-Americans in the 2021-2022 academic year, with 30 Bucks being named to the All-Academic Teams. To achieve this honor, a student athlete must complete 24 hours of class work in the academic year and compete in their respective sport season, along with meeting the GPA requirement of a 3.6 GPA or higher. The following student-athletes were named to as NJCAA Academic All-Americans:
First Team – 4.0 GPA
- Madison Dettmer (Bryant, AR) – Women's Cross Country
- Presleigh Payne (Grapevine, TX) – Softball
- Grant Shankle (Van Buren, AR) – Baseball
- James McCormick (Benton, AR) – Baseball
- Will Dolan (Sugar Land, TX) – Baseball
Second Team – 3.80 to 3.99 GPA
- Allison Irwin (Hot Springs, AR) – Women's Soccer
- Kate Duncan (Bauxite, AR) – Women's Soccer
- Kaylin McKee (Wickes, AR) – Softball
- Jackson Wells (Rogers, AR) – Baseball
- Eli Garrison (North Little Rock, AR) – Baseball
- Ike Pelts (Lamar, AR) – Baseball
Third Team – 3.60 to 3.79 GPA
- Kailey Pentz (Siloam Springs, AR) – Women's Cross Country
- Olivia Orr (Bryant, AR) – Women's Cross Country
- Joshua Swint (Mena, AR) – Men's Cross Country
- Yeremi Camacho Vasquez (Wister, OK) – Men's Cross Country
- Gracie Evans (England) – Women's Soccer
- Jessica Douglas (England) – Women's Soccer
- Bailey Sawyer (Scotland) – Men's Soccer
- Barkan Kilic (Germany) – Men's Soccer
- Brayden Autry (Aubrey, TX) – Men's Soccer
- Christopher Tarr (South Africa) – Men's Soccer
- Edward Garcia (De Queen, AR) – Men's Soccer
- Abi West (Ida, AR) – Softball
- Ashlee Gurley (Logansport, LA) – Softball
- Avery Cotten (Longview, TX) – Softball
- Brooke Detommaso (Las Vegas, NV) – Softball
- Madelynn Lacaze (Gladewater, TX) – Softball
- Sydney Smith (Siloam Springs, AR) – Softball
- Cole Clark (Clarksville, AR) – Baseball
- Daniel Taylor (Rogers, AR) – Baseball
Assistant Athletic Director Jerod McCormick was very excited at the end of the spring semester when grades were posted. "We visit with our athletes at the beginning of each year about being the standard in the classroom and being a leader on and off the field. Our teams are not only successful athletically, but their success off the field is what we are most proud of. These accomplishments are a testament to their hard work, the importance of coursework made by our coaching staffs, and the work of our Academic Advisor, Charlotte Wiles, who goes above and beyond to help our student-athletes every day." Adding to this, Athletic Director Morris Boydstun stated, "Our student-athletes must be students first and athletics comes second. They have exemplified this with these succusses in the classroom. We look forward to more of your success in the future."
Click here for a complete list from the NJCAA – https://d2o2figo6ddd0g.cloudfront.net/o/m/k76sb8ett1ne7e/2021-22_NJCAA_Individual_All-Academic_Awards_-_07-10-22.pdf.
Click here for a complete list of Student-Athlete Honors at UARM – https://bucksathletics.com/information/honors.
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