Montana’s spring sports placed a league-high 62 student-athletes on the recent Academic All-Big Sky Conference teams that were announced this week, giving the Grizzlies 155 selections for the 2014-15 academic year, a record for the department.
The previous record for Montana’s programs was the 140 selections in 2012-13.
Coach Brian Schweyen’s men’s track and field program had 14 selections, the most of any men’s track and field team in the conference. The news came on the heels of the program’s spring-semester GPA of 3.07, the first time the men’s track and field team has had a term GPA above 3.0.
Softball, with nine selections, and women’s golf, with five, both tied for the second-highest total within their sport in the conference. Women’s track and field, with 23, and men’s tennis, with six, both tied for third.
Five spring-sport athletes concluded their careers with their fourth Academic All-Big Sky honor: Tara Green of the women’s golf team, Laurence Pelchat of women’s tennis, and outdoor track and field’s Mark Messmer, David Norris and Autumn Taniguchi
Weber State had the league’s second-highest total of 59. Eastern Washington and Idaho State both had 55, North Dakota had 53.
Montana’s 2015 Spring Academic All-Big Sky Conference selections
Women’s golf: Barbora Bakova (So., Marketing); Tara Green (Sr., Elementary education); Hailey Hoagland (Fr., Business administration); Amanda Kahn (So., Communicative sciences and disorders); Alexa Schendelman (So., Health and human performance)
Men’s outdoor track and field: Jakob Alme (Fr., Health and human performance); Micah Drew (So., Journalism); Brett Dringman (Fr., Business administration); Dylan Hambright (Sr., Sociology); Luke Hilmes (Fr., Undeclared); Jensen Lillquist (Fr., Undeclared); Brian Maus (Sr., Management); Mark Messmer (Sr., Health and human performance); Alex Mustard (Fr., Undeclared); David Norris (Sr., Health and human performance); Matt Quist (Fr., General studies); Sterling Reneau (Fr., Health and human performance); Nathan Wellington (Fr., Health and human performance); Ben Williamson (Sr., Biology)
Women’s outdoor track and field: Emma Andrews (Fr., Pre-education); Jessica Bailey (Fr., Health and human performance); Caitlin Caraway (Sr., Health and human performance); Emily Cheroske (Fr., Computer science); Claire Dalman (Fr., Business administration); Keli Dennehy (Sr., Accounting); Nycole Devers (Gr., Counselor education); Shayle Dezellem (Sr., Health and human performance); Jenna Dukovcic (Fr., Biology); Hana Feilzer (Fr., Sociology); McCalle Feller (Jr., Journalism); Amanda Foley (Jr., Communication studies); Heather Fraley (Sr., Wildlife biology); Megan Franz (Fr., Biology); Haley Gellner (Fr., Health and human performance); Samantha Hodgson (Jr., Health and human performance); Emily Mendoza (Jr., Social work); Madison Page (Fr., Health and human performance); Anna Pershouse (Jr., Health and human performance); Nicole Stroot (So., Biology); Morgan Sulser (Fr., History/political science); Autumn Taniguchi (Sr., Sociology); McKenzie Weber (Fr., Health and human performance)
Men’s tennis: Semion Branzburg (Jr., Finance); Zach Fisher (Fr., Business administration); Peter Mimnagh-Fleming (So., Accounting/finance); Alexandr Rudenco (Fr., Sociology); Yannick Schmidl (Fr., Business administration); Tomasz Soltyka (Jr., Management information systems)
Women’s tennis: Sasha Carter (Sr., Marketing); Cam Kincaid (Fr., Business administration); Catherine Orfanos (Fr., Business administration); Laurence Pelchat (Sr., Management); Hannah Sulz (So., Marketing)
Softball: Lexie Brenneis (Fr., Pre-journalism); Kenzie Cole (Sr., Marketing); Mackenzie Kutzke (Fr., Pre-psychology); Tori Lettus (Fr., Computer science); Ashlyn Lyons (Fr., Comprehensive social studies); Gabby Martinez (Fr., Health and human performance); MaKenna McGill (Fr., Health and human performance); Carli Riordan (Fr., Health and human performance); Katie Jo Waletzko (Fr., Health and human performance)
Montana Sports Information