July 17, 2023, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Grand Rapids Community College capped off a fantastic year in competition with a total of 43 student-athletes earning All-Academic honors from the Michigan Community College Athletic Association this week. This is a huge jump from 33 student-athletes a year ago.
Earlier this year, GRCC's athletic department was awarded its 16th All-Sports Trophy - the MCCAA's most prestigious honor - after all eight of the department's programs had successful seasons.
The baseball and golf teams finished highest among all eight programs, earning MCCAA All-Academic team honors with cumulative grade point averages over 3.0.
"I'm proud of what our student-athletes accomplished," Athletic Director Lauren Ferullo said. "Our coaches and staff make academic success a priority and our students work hard. That is reflected in these honors. We're preparing them for long-term success, beyond their playing days."
The MCCAA honors student-athletes by naming them with Academic All-Conference and Academic All-MCCAA awards, in addition to MCCAA All-Academic Team awards.
To earn Academic All-Conference honors, student-athletes must earn at least 24 credits with a 3.0 GPA or higher. For Academic All-MCCAA, a student-athlete must earn at least 24 credits with a 3.2 GPA. For a team to be recognized as an MCCAA All-Academic Team, teams must earn a cumulative 3.0 GPA.
All of the GRCC teams competing this past year had at least one student-athlete recognized on the MCCAA Academic All-Conference team, with a total of 43 student-athletes. There were 37 student-athletes recognized by earning Academic All-MCCAA honors.
Earning MCCAA Academic All-Conference Academic awards are: Aaron Bess, Andres Rivera-Calderon, Austyn Adams, Caleb Kuiper, Colton Leatherman, Dylan Chargo, Fernando Rivera-Calderon, Luke Huerta, Melvin Rodriguez, Ryan Hether, Tommy Reid, Trevin Laming, and Zacarias Salinas of the baseball team.
Also earning the honor are Bradley Vandenhout, Conner Oman, Drew Harrington, McCoy DenHartigh, Ty Marchlewski and Zach Basiaga of the golf team; Brockton Kohler, Myron Brewer and Rico Wade of the men's basketball team; Craig Fuller, Dan Kehoe and Lucas Schneider of the men's cross country team.
Also named to the Academic All-Conference team are Alena Visnovsky, Audrey Gower, Audrey Torres, Braelyn Berry, Charlie Baker, Kara Hecht, Rylee VanPatten and Shannon Russell of the volleyball team; Karissa Ferry, who played both volleyball and basketball, Alyssa Wierenga, who played both volleyball and softball; Marlene Bussler and Sally Merrill of the women's basketball team; Autumn Scott, Izabella Regner and Madison Lemke of the softball team; Audrey Meyering, Rose Meyer and Zoe Zawacki of the women's cross country team.
Earning MCCAA All-Academic awards are Bess, Adams, Kuiper, Leatherman, Chargo, F. Rivera-Calderon, Huerta, Rodriguez, Hether, Reid, Laming, Salinas, Wade, Fuller, Kehoe, Schneider, Oman, Harrington, DenHartigh, Scott, Regner, Lemke, Bussler, Merrill, Ferry, Meyering, Meyer, Zawacki, Visnovsky, Gower, Torres, Berry, Baker, Hecht, VanPatten, Russell, and Wierenga.
This story was reported by Ben Brown
