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ESCANABA — Three area student-athletes were among 15 from Bay de Noc Community College to be named to 2019-20 all-academic teams by the National Junior College Athletic Association.

The national group of two-year institutions honors students with grade-point averages of at least 3.60 on a 4.00 scale. The First Team was reserved for those with perfect 4.00 averages, while the Second Team was for 3.80-3.99 GPAs and Third Team for those with 3.60-3.79 GPAs.

All three honored athletes from the area at Bay are members of the Norse women’s basketball team.

Bay College’s Trish McGuire, right, drives past Gogebic’s Samaiya Buchanan during their Feb. 12 game in Escanaba. (Escanaba Daily Press photo by Austin Hemmingson)

Munising sophomore Marissa Ackerman was named to the NJCAA Second Team, while a pair of Gwinn freshmen made the Third Team — Brooke Mannor and Trish McGuire.

They were part of another honor, too, as that Bay women’s team was also named an Academic Team of the Year by the NJCAA for having an overall GPA of 3.27. Just over 100 women’s basketball teams nationwide were honored among 1,026 in all sports in the NJCAA for having GPAs of at least 3.00.

Women’s basketball joined volleyball, baseball and softball as having the most teams academically honored nationally.

In Bay College’s NJCAA Region 13, there were nine other women’s basketball teams honored, led by Miles Community College’s 3.68 GPA and Western Technical’s 3.64, the second- and third-highest in the country only behind Odessa (Texas) College’s 3.85 GPA. The highest GPA in any sport was Emory Oxford (Georgia) in women’s golf at 3.86.

There were 27 sports that teams were honored in, including football, beach volleyball, wrestling and lacrosse, along with men’s and women’s teams in bowling, cross country, golf, half marathon, indoor and outdoor track & field, soccer, swimming & diving and tennis.

Gwinn's Trisha McGuire is fouled in a game against Ishpeming in an MHSAA Division 3 girls basketball district tournament game played at the Modeltowners' gym on March 6, 2019. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

From Bay College, one athlete was named First Team for his perfect 4.00 GPA — freshman baseball player Dan Harrington of Iron Mountain.

Joining Ackerman on the Second Team was women’s basketball sophomore teammate Haley Trudell of Rock. Also making that honor list from Bay were freshmen baseball players Jackson Bower of Bark River, Jared Crow of Gladstone and Ernesto Gomez of the Dominican Republic; sophomore baseball player Dane VanDenHeuvel of Norway; and freshman softball player Eden Oswald of Bark River.

Also being honored on the Third Team with Mannor and McGuire was Bay women’s basketball sophomore teammate Kaitlyn Hardwick of Gladstone, who also played on the Norse softball squad.

Other Third Teamers from Bay are softball freshman Morgan Letteriello of Gladstone; and baseball freshmen Carson Shea of Gladstone, Mike Campbell of Minocqua, Wisconsin, and Nicolas Goebert of Werl, Germany.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

Gwinn's Brooke Mannor puts up a reverse layup in front of Westwood's Madi Koski, partially hidden, in the first quarter of their high school basketball game played at Gwinn on Feb. 21, 2019. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

Gwinn’s Brooke Mannor, left, wrestles Westwood’s Meghan Johnson for the ball in a Feb. 21, 2019, game in Gwinn. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)