By TODD MOORE
Barton Sports Info
Nearly half of student-athletes from Barton Community College achieved a 3.50 or better grade point average during the 2023-24 academic year.
Accumulating a Department wide 3.24 GPA, Barton was represented by 130 All-Academic honors announced by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) with an additional 33 coming through the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC).
Overall, within Barton's 302 student-athletes, 148 (49%) received either national and/or KJCCC honors including four earning their respective sport's Scholar Athlete of the Year awards. The academic year's achievements caps an academic year that also saw Barton cheer's Hayley Wise chosen as a 2024 Outstanding Barton graduate, sports medicine's Bradley Beck a Student Ambassador of the Year, and swimming's Rachel Sims on the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society All-State Academic team.
With the NJCAA and KJCCC having slightly different criteria, most notable the national's 3.60 standard versus the conference's 3.5 for academic honors, an additional 26 student-athletes gained conference distinction bringing Barton's total to 148 individuals and 163 classroom achievement recognized honors.
On the national level, Barton student-athletes were among 12,245 across the NJCAA earning a spot on one of three All-Academic teams for the academic year for obtaining a 3.60 or better GPA.
Thirty-six Cougars achieved a perfect 4.0 in the classroom, thirty-five of those meeting NJCAA requirements to join 3,424 nation-wide recipients earning 1st team NJCAA All-Academic distinction.
Falling into the 3.80-3.99 GPA category, Barton had thirty-eight in the range with thirty-seven of those meeting national requirements for 2nd team NJCAA honors. An additional forty-seven Cougars accumulated a GPA in the 3.60-3.79 range with forty-six of those receiving 3rd team national accolades.
In addition to the NJCAA honors, four Cougars have been recognized as Academic Scholars of the Year by their respective sport organizations.
Lucas Constante of the men's soccer team was named this past January as the United Soccer Coaches (USC) Junior College National Scholar Player of the Year with teammate Nicolas Galanis earning 2nd team recognition.