By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

INDIANAPOLIS – Over 600 girls and boys basketball players, 602 to be exact, were named Academic All-State by the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association.

The awards were split into two divisions, 37 boys and 35 girls, as First Team All-Academic while the remaining 530 were issued Honorable Mention Academic All-State. To be nominated for the award, the senior basketball player must carry a 3.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale (or equivalent) and be part of the top 25 percent of their graduating class. The IBCA elected to drop the standardized test scores for the 2020-21 school year due to discrepancies in schools taking or not taking them.

The IBCA has issued the Academic All-State awards since 1973 for boys basketball and 1980 for girls basketball.

Only one area player was among the First Team for the boys, that being Sam Smith of Northridge. On the girls side, Tippecanoe Valley’s Sidney Wagner was a First Teamer, along with Olivia Brooke of Pioneer, Lilliann Frasure of North Judson, Bailey Hartsough of Lakeland, Mariah Hosted of Churubusco, Remi Jordan of Knox, Lilliann Mast of West Noble and Mercedes Rhodes of Oregon-Davis.

Honorable Mentions are listed below by school. Boys and girls are both listed for their school, girls first.

Bethany Christian – Sadie Brenneman, Maddie Chupp, Rilynn Kaufmann, Mia Reinhardt, Beck Willems

Bremen – Haylie Rodriguez, Paige Thompson

Caston – Cameron Kline

Culver – Madison Shedrow, Josh Havron

Concord – Gavin Smith

East Noble – Kylie Garton, Carly Turner

Elkhart – Taryn Roberson, Michaela Whitaker

Fairfield – Kayla Miller, Mackayla Stutsman

Goshen – Megan Gallagher, Brynn Shoup-Hill

John Glenn – Seja King

Knox – Preston Minix

Lakeland – Sadie Edsall, Madison Keil, Clinton Bowers, Mason Douglas

Maconaquah – Madison Wilson, Graham Stoll

Manchester – Eva Bazzoni

Mishawaka Marian – McKenzie Hudgen

New Prairie – Braydon Flagg, Rylan McBride, Hunter Smith

North Judson – Adalynn Harper, Trey Hampton

North Miami – Alex Masters

Northridge – Brylee Froman, Jaci Walker, Trevor Brown, Jesse Ryman, Carter Stoltzfus, Clay Stoltzfus

NorthWood – Kendal Miller, Alea Miller, Bre Wise, Ben Vincent

Penn – Grace Adams, Emily Salwin, Jordyn Smith, Caleb Applegate, Jayden Doster, Gabe Gatate

Peru – Carlee Marburger, Kash Bellar, Trey Curtis, Pete Polk

Pioneer – Madison Blickenstaff, Mackenzie Walker

Plymouth – Emma Cook, Tallula Gault, Lindsay Janus

Prairie Heights – Haylee Henderson, Seth Troyer

Rochester – Kim Batten, Mercedes Brown, Kaitlin Rogers

South Bend Adams – Harrison Jeffers

South Bend Riley – Phillip Robles III

South Bend St. Joe – Sarah Hiestand, Jack Quinn

Tippecanoe Valley – Hayley Backus, Ashley Butler

Triton – Jaelyn Bules, John Gardner

Warsaw – Audrey Grimm, Kensie Ryman, Kendall Wayne

Wawasee – Tate Cowan, Danielle Jenkins, Adam Beer, Kam Salazar

West Noble – Angela Caldwell, Erin Shoemaker

Whitko – Drake Lewis, Brett Sickafoose

Winamac – Aubrey Gearhart, Carson Bennett