For the fourth consecutive semester, the Black Hills State University Athletic Department has reported a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher among their student-athletes, posting a department wide average of 3.390 for the spring 2026 term and rounding out the 2025-26 academic year with a 3.370 GPA. Additionally, the spring semester average is the third straight above a 3.35, and the 2025-26 academic year is the second consecutive for the department above 3.35 for the entire year.
Supporting 341 student-athletes in total during the spring, the department saw 27 percent, 91 individuals, achieve a perfect 4.0 GPA. Furthermore, 55 percent of BHSU student-athletes, 189 individuals, achieved a GPA of 3.5 or higher, and 79 percent of the student-athletes, 270 individuals, achieved a GPA of 3.0 or higher. For the second time in the last three semesters, all 14 of the Yellow Jacket athletic programs posted a team GPA of 3.0 or higher and eight were above a GPA of 3.5 as a team.
Leading the way for the athletic department during the spring semester with a team GPA of 3.808 was volleyball, while also among the eight teams to sit above a 3.5 were women’s triathlon (3.781), softball (3.710), women’s track & field (3.645), women’s soccer (3.626), women’s cross country (3.614), women’s basketball (3.607), and women’s golf (3.525).Rounding out the remaining six programs above a 3.0 were men’s cross country (3.420), men’s track & field (3.370), women’s rodeo (3.345), men’s rodeo (3.243), football (3.087), and men’s basketball (3.071).
After posting the highest team GPA of the spring semester, the volleyball program also led the athletic department with the highest GPA of the 2025-26 academic year, recording a GPA of 3.791. They were among nine programs to post a 3.5 GPA or higher on the year, which also included softball (3.758), women’s indoor track & field (3.743), women’s triathlon (3.710), women’s outdoor track & field (3.645), women’s soccer (3.637), women’s cross country (3.634), women’s basketball (3.596), and men’s cross country (3.551).
Football saw a department-high 13 student-athletes achieve a perfect 4.0 GPA during the spring semester, as they were the lone program with ten or more. The second-most in the department was nine 4.0 student-athletes from both women’s rodeo and women’s track & field. Rounding out the programs with five or more in the final semester of the year was volleyball, women’s cross country, softball, and men’s track & field with eight each, women’s soccer with seven, men’s basketball with six, and men’s cross country with five. The remaining programs were men’s basketball with four 4.0 student-athletes, and men’s rodeo, women’s golf, and women’s triathlon with two each. Volleyball saw the highest percentage of their roster with perfect GPAs, with 57 percent of the team achieving the mark. Two other teams saw 40 percent or more of their roster record 4.0s, which were women’s cross country with 44 percent of their roster and softball with 40 percent of their roster.
Football also led the way with 35 student-athletes achieving a 3.5 GPA or better and were among the three programs that saw 20 or more attain the mark. The other two programs to do so were men’s and women’s track & field who each had 20 attain the mark. Rounding out the ten programs to have double digit student-athletes achieve a 3.5 GPA or better in the spring included women’s soccer (16), women’s rodeo (16), women’s cross country (14), men’s cross country (14), softball (13), volleyball (11), and women’s basketball (11). Others in the department saw women’s triathlon and men’s basketball each with six student-athletes with a 3.5 GPA or higher, women’s golf with four, and men’s rodeo with three. Of the department’s 14 athletic programs, 11 of them saw 50 percent or more of their student-athletes attain a 3.5 GPA or better, which included women’s triathlon (86%), volleyball (79%), women’s cross country (78%), women’s track & field (77%), women’s soccer (76%), women’s basketball (69%), softball (65%), women’s rodeo (64%), men’s cross country (61%), women’s golf (57%), and men’s rodeo (50%).
During the 2025-26 academic year, Black Hills State University athletic programs were highly recognized by various organizations for their work in the classroom. By the numbers to date, the Yellow Jackets saw 108 RMAC Academic Honor Roll selections, 15 First Team Academic All-RMAC Selections, two RMAC Summit Award recipients, one RMAC Academic Player of the Year, 31 CSC Academic All-District selections, two CSC Academic All-Americans, four CTCA Scholar All-Americans, three USTFCCCA All-Academic athletes, one NCAA Elite Scholar Athlete, and three scholar all-academic teams (two USTFCCCA All-Academic & one CTCA Scholar All-American Team). Several other academic award releases have not yet been released and will be in the upcoming weeks from CSC and the USTFCCA.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
6 – CSC Academic All-District (Rylee Barnes, Bailey Smith, Whitney Hansen, Ainsley Wilson, Katy Vinton, and Lena Homan)
1 – First Team Academic All-RMAC (Ainsley Wilson)
14 – RMAC Academic Honor Roll (Rylee Barnes, Leah Day, Zoe Evans, Jayda Hammer, Whitney Hansen, Lena Homan, Sienna Osborne, Bailey Smith, Oceanna Solis, Kayla Truong, Katy Vinton, Tea Whitlock, Zoe Wiggall, and Ainsley Wilson)
VOLLEYBALL
4 – CSC Academic All-District (Ellie Thomas, Zoie Husman, Elena Atkinson, and Sydnie Tuioti-Mariner)
1 – First Team Academic All-RMAC (Ellie Thomas)
7 – RMAC Academic Honor Roll (Zoie Husman, Emma Kruger, Elena Atkinson, Ellie Thomas, Sydnie Tuioti-Mariner, Emily Freeland, and Carsyn Mettler)
FOOTBALL
1 – CSC Second Team Academic All-American (Cooper Brown)
8 – CSC Academic All-District (Wyatt Trembly, Jack Gentile, Wes Koenig, Cooper Brown, Erik Salmen, Cameron Goods, Kelby Olson, and Ashar Granger)
3 – First Team Academic All-RMAC (Luke Duby, Cameron Goods, and Cooper Brown)
23 – RMAC Academic Honor Roll (Cooper Brown, Kolbe Dierks, Luke Duby, Josh Dunn, Ryan Ewing, Cristian Fallani, Cameron Goods, Ashar Granger, Matthew Gray, Brody Jones, Wes Koenig, Beto Ledezma, Matthew Lofaso, Cole Marquez, Emiliano Mejia, Mitch Moravec, Cohen Morrow, Sebastian O’Farrell, Kelby Olson, Erik Salmen, Wyatt Trembly, Hayden Umble, and Kade Weber)
MEN’S BASKETBALL
1 – NCAA Elite Scholar Athlete Award (Blake Volmer)
1 – CSC First Team Academic All-American (Cam Lowe)
4 – CSC Academic All-District (Cam Lowe, Blake Volmer, Joel Speckman, and Tristan Hurdle)
1 – RMAC Summit Award (Blake Volmer)
1 – RMAC Academic Player of the Year (Cam Lowe)
2 – First Team Academic All-RMAC (Cam Lowe, Blake Volmer)
5 – RMAC Academic Honor Roll (Blake Volmer, Cam Lowe, Joel Speckman, Tristan Hurdle, and Jack Haggett)
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
4 – CSC Academic All-District (Tess Rule, Bradie Schlabs, Sawyer Stoebner, and Maureen Ulrich)
1 – RMAC Summit Award (Tess Rule)
3 – First Team Academic All-RMAC (Tess Rule, Bradie Schlabs, and Sawyer Stoebner)
6 – RMAC Academic Honor Roll (Maureen Ulrich, Sawyer Stoebner, Bradie Schlabs, Tess Rule, Emily Cooper, Audrey Norville)
SOFTBALL
5 – CSC Academic All-District (Audrey Fouras, Paige Goodell, Carly Reyes Mims, Kaitlyn Geschwill, and Caylee Mann)
2 – First Team Academic All-RMAC (Audrey Fouras and Paige Goodell)
8 – RMAC Academic Honor Roll (Katelyn Jarzobski, Audrey Fouras, Paige Goodell, Skylar Bedlan, Gracie Oswald, Carly Reyes Mims, Carli Maley, and Anna Gietzen)
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
1 – USTFCCCA All-Academic Team (4th in NCAA Division II & 1st in RMAC with 3.71 fall GPA)
2 – USTFCCCA All-Academic Athlete (Turner Christians and Landrum Wiley)
6 – RMAC Academic Honor Roll (Anthony Ackerman, Braden Anderson, Dominic Eberle, Drew Lehman, Jonah Rigg, and Jaxon Straus)
CSC Academic Awards have not yet been released for cross country/track & field.
MEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
1 – First Team Academic All-RMAC (Drew Lehman)
12 – RMAC Academic Honor Roll (Anthony Ackerman, Ryan Baker, Jayden Curtis, Dawson Lindeen, Drew Lehman, Matthew Lofaso, Chase Maher, Isaac Job, Javin Walker, Jaxon Straus, Jonah Rigg, and Ashley Williams)
USTFCCCA Academic Awards for outdoor track & field and CSC Academic Awards for cross country/track & field have not yet been released.
MEN’S OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD
RMAC Academic Awards and USTFCCCA Academic Awards for outdoor track & field and CSC Academic Awards for cross country/track & field have not yet been released.
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
1 – USTFCCCA All-Academic Team (3rd in RMAC with 3.65 fall GPA)
1 – USTFCCCA All-Academic Athlete (Evie Boyd)
11 – RMAC Academic Honor Roll (Kadence Baun, Evie Boyd, Alyssa Brandt, Brooklyn Brooks, Katie Charest
CSC Academic Awards have not yet been released for cross country/track & field.
WOMEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD
2 – First Team Academic All-RMAC (Cassidy Goddard and Gretchen Adamski)
15 – RMAC Academic Honor Roll (Gretchen Adamski, Saraya Afrank, Kadence Baun, Lauryn Bennett, Alessandra Broussard, Hope Bryant, Cassidy Goddard, Sierra Hopp, Abigail Robberson, Payton Sheehan, Hanah Sullivan, Morgan Sumption, Alivia Weathers, Erin Weibel, and Gracie Wilts)
USTFCCCA Academic Awards for outdoor track & field and CSC Academic Awards for cross country/track & field have not yet been released.
WOMEN’S OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD
RMAC Academic Awards and USTFCCCA Academic Awards for outdoor track & field and CSC Academic Awards for cross country/track & field have not yet been released.
WOMEN’S GOLF
1 – RMAC Academic Honor Roll (Olivia McCandless)
CSC Academic Awards for women’s golf have not yet been released.
WOMEN’S TRIATHLON
1 – CTCA Scholar All-American Team
4 – CTCA Division II Scholar All-American Honorable Mention (Chantel Bickler, Sydney Campbell, Payton Sheehan, and Scarlett Walsh)
