COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – All 11 members of Omaha hockey's freshman class were named NCHC Academic All-Conference for the 2019-20 season, the conference announced on Wednesday.
Joey Abate,
Josh Boyer,
Ryan Brushett,
Kirby Proctor,
Noah Prokop,
Austin Roden,
Alex Roy,
Isaiah Saville,
Brandon Scanlin,
Nolan Sullivan and
Jacob Zab all were honored for earning a 3.0 cumulative grade-point average while completing a full academic year. The Mavericks represented one-quarter of the 44 NCHC freshmen and first-year transfers honored.
In addition, nine Mavericks - Abate, Boyer, Proctor, Prokop, Roden, Saville, Scanlin, Sullivan and Zab - were named NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes for earning a GPA of 3.5 or better.
Sophomores, juniors and seniors were honored back in February, but freshmen and transfers are not recognized until the spring semester closes.
Overall in 2019-20, the Mavericks led all NCHC teams, as they've done each of the NCHC's seven seasons, by placing 24 of their 26 student-athletes on the Academic All-Conference Team. Denver was second with 23 total representatives on the Academic All-NCHC Team. Miami and Western Michigan each had 21 while all eight NCHC programs had at least 13 total representatives this season.
The Mavericks also paced all teams in newcomers being named NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes. North Dakota added five Distinguished Scholar-Athletes while Denver and Western Michigan had four newcomers each receive the honor. All NCHC teams had at least two newcomers collect Distinguished Scholar-Athlete honors.
As a whole in 2019-20, Omaha also once more led NCHC teams with 16 NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes while Denver and North Dakota produced 12 total student-athletes that collected the honor. Miami and Western Michigan are home to 10 Distinguished Scholar-Athletes each while all eight teams had at least three NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes.
In all, 148 NCHC student-athletes made the 2019-20 Academic All-Conference Team with 104 sophomores, juniors and seniors recognized on Feb. 19. A record 74 student-athletes were tabbed NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes in 2019-20, including the 43 sophomores, juniors and seniors announced in February. The 74 NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes are the most in the conference's five years since the honor began (the previous record was 73 last year).
