Athletes Getting It Done In The Classroom
INDIANAPOLIS – Interscholastic athletics is part athlete, part student. Various sports organizations recognized winter sports with awards for Academic All-State. The ICGSA already awarded its honorees in girls basketball earlier this season. This post will showcase the award winners in boys basketball, wrestling, gymnastics and girls swimming. Boys swimming has not issued its Academic All-State list as of Wednesday afternoon.
BOYS BASKETBALL
The Indiana Basketball Coaches Association released its All-Academic honors, and four from the area made the First Team. The quartet, which had to be at a 3.5 GPA and in the top 25 percent of its class among other requirements, included NorthWood’s Trent Edwards, Goshen’s Zack Barker, Penn’s Carter Hickey and Wabash’s Elijah VanderVelden as part of the First Team Academic list.
Over 225 boys basketball players were honored overall in both the First Teams and Honorable Mention lists.
Honorable Mentions from the area included Lakeland Christian Academy’s Matthew Helton and Landon Paris, East Noble’s Luke Denton, Nate Dickson and Gage Ernsberger, Manchester’s Korbin Hensley, Kreeden Krull and Caleb Stout, Jimtown’s Clay Campbell and Preston Phillips, Maconaquah’s Cole Borden and Sam Bourne, Culver Academy’s Anthony Goeb and Nicholas Hittle, DeKalb’s Evan Eshbach and Caleb Nixon, NorthWood’s Brock Flickinger, Glenn’s Khori Barker, Goshen’s Jarah Byler, Northridge’s Alex Stauffer, Southwood’s Jackson Simons and North Miami’s Greg Sonafrank.
WRESTLING
Wrestling had a huge number of its athletes qualify for its academic honors, acquired by Indiana Mat and its associated coaches. Over 430 juniors and seniors were recognized in their efforts to register at least a 3.75 GPA, seniors split into First Team and Honorable Mentions and juniors as one list.
With so many on the overall lists, naturally a good representation comes from the area. In total 48 area seniors and 27 juniors made the lists in all three groups. Senior Academic All-State First Teams included Warsaw’s Brock Hogenson and Brock Hueber, as well as NorthWood’s Jaden Miller. The junior Academic All-State includes NorthWood’s Blake Herr. Honorable Mention seniors include Warsaw’s Austin Brown, Angel Mendez and Jayton Brock, NorthWood’s Jake Lone and Triton’s Connor Pitney.
Also noted from the area as senior Academic All-State First Team were Elkhart Central’s Peyton Anderson and Makai Mitchell, Concord’s Logan Sunday and Drew Smeltzer, West Noble’s Dillon Sumowski and Logan Sumowski, Jimtown’s Riley Horvath, Northridge’s Rhent Addis, South Bend Adams’ Ryan Downey, Maconaquah’s Blake Kinney and New Prairie’s Hayden Downs.
Senior Academic All-State Honorable Mention included Jimtown’s Henry Gratzol, Ethan Eberhart, Jacob Werts and Lukas Medford, Goshen’s Rasheek Bonds and Kaleb Klimer, Elkhart Memorial’s Andrew Schutz and Kamden Goering, Plymouth’s Graham Calhoun and Andrew Himes, Northridge’s Oliver Eveler and Omar Khaoucha, South Bend Clay’s Miguel Penaloza and James Baragus, West Noble’s Shayne Tierney, Concord’s Christian Pfeiffer-Laguerre, South Bend Adams’ Horace Hill, Mishawaka’s Joe Walker, DeKalb’s Jackson Lee, Culver Academy’s Chris Roth, Elkhart Central’s Jacob Sommer, Rochester’s Haydn Prater, South Bend Riley’s Josh Hicks, Maconaquah’s Alex Ringeisen, Peru’s Trey Sturgill, Churubusco’s Marcus DeBolt, Glenn’s Aaron Sherman, Manchester’s Bryce Kamphues and Penn’s Yehezquel DeVault.
Junior Academic All-State included Culver Academy’s Yuqi Lin, Ben Key, Samuel Suppes and Minseo Kim, Peru’s Sam Makowski, Kayden Gee and Alex Lagg, Northridge’s Logan Hooley and Andrew Lockwood, New Prairie’s Tristan Balmer and Blake Kessler, DeKalb’s Rafe Worman and Jacob Leming, Manchester’s Eli Burlingame and Trescott Duffy, Concord’s Andrew BonDurant and Logan Kidder, Goshen’s Eddy Flores, Elkhart Central’s Makai Mitchell, Northfield’s Logan Cox, West Noble’s Landon Roy, Southwood’s Aaliyah Douglass, Rochester’s Noah Swango, Glenn’s Nathan May, South Bend Adams’ Jacob Harsch and LaVille’s James Bettcher.
GIRLS SWIMMING
The ICGSA honored over 50 swimmers as among its academic offerings.
Earning First Team All-State were a pair from Goshen in Zoe Eichorn and Sydney Penner, and a trio from St. Joe in Evelyn Sierra, Elena Parial and Rebecca Pan.
Honorable Mentions went to Manchester’s Madison Evans, New Prairie’s Destiny Hockman, Elizabeth Walker and Beth Armstrong, and St. Joe’s Clare Jachim, Ellen Lavelle and Ryan Drew.
GYMNASTICS
A total of 24 gymnasts were named to the ICGSA Academic All-State list.
Of the two dozen honored, just one area gymnast made the list, that being Ellie Dobson of Elkhart Central. Dobson was named First Team All-State.