The Iowa Central men's and women's half marathon teams have been honored as NJCAA Academic Teams of the Year.

On the women's side, this is the second consecutive year that the program has been named. In all, 28 programs from across the country earned NJCAA Academic Team of the Year status after achieving the highest grade point average in their respective sport throughout the academic year.

A total of 820 teams earned at least a 3.0 GPA or better. 

"Achieving NJCAA Academic Team of the Year is one of our program goals every season. I am thrilled at the hard work our student-athletes put in. Not only are they the best in distance running but they are tops in the classroom as well," said Dee Brown, Director of Cross Country for Iowa Central. "I tell them every year, it is easy to brag about their running abilities, but people just expect that of this group. I am even more thrilled to brag about their academic success, that is when we get people's attention." 

From Iowa Central, over 100 student-athletes were named to the NJCAA All-Academic Team for the 2020-21 season. Those with a 4.0 GPA were selected to the first team, 3.80-3.99 were on the second and 3.60-3.79 made the third. 

Making the first team were Kealey Anderson, Lucas Bauer, Kelly Boleyn, Addison Boyle, Ashlyn Clark, MacKenzie Crampton, Abigail Dalebout, Karli Eckert, Keagen Einck, Noah Epley, Annabelle Friege, Chance Gibbons, Juan Gomez Vitta, Lucas Hazi Pollacchi, Austin Hemann, Julia Herbst, Reese Hood, Alesha Johnson, Jessica Jordison, Nathan Martinek, Denzel Mifsud, Magali Mouton, Garret Ollendieck, Anthony Pham, Jett Pinneo, Daniel Pontnack, Flavie Sallaz, Brayan Silva, Emma Slade, Rachel Slade, Ashly Wiegand and Kyle Wille. 

For the complete list, follow this link.

-By Dana Becker