Feb. 3, 2010

NAPERVILLE, Ill. - The Great West Conference has announced its 2009 Fall Academic All-Conference honors for the sports of football, men's and women's cross country, women's soccer and volleyball.

Making up the academic team are 48 football players, 24 men's cross country runners, 26 women's cross country runners, 45 women's soccer players and 28 volleyball players.

Leading the honorees are ten athletes who have achieved 4.0 grade point averages. Those individuals are Delaware State women's soccer players Chelsea Brown and Michelle Giorgilli, Houston Baptist women's cross country runners Erica Clark and Raquel Tidwell and volleyball player Sarah Hazlewood, North Dakota football players Brandon Hellevang, Andrew Miller and Nick Nolte and women's cross country runner Kristi Dahlheimer and South Dakota cross country runner Nick Beare.

In all, 171 Great West Conference athletes were named to the team based on a minimum cumulative 3.2 grade point average. The athletes also must have participated in at least 50 percent of their respective team's contests. Using the institutions' most recent GPA, the student-athletes are selected by each member institution's sports information director, with approval from the faculty athletic representative and the head coach. First-year students and JC transfers in their first year of residence are not eligible for the award.

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