The 2020-21 school year was a banner one on the playing fields for the Hillsdale College athletic department.
The Chargers won eight Great Midwest Athletic Conference team titles and had nine of its 10 squads in sports where an NCAA Division II championship was contested earn a berth for postseason play.
While it was an excellent season on the court, field, diamond and track for the Chargers, once again it also was an extremely fruitful year in the classroom for Hillsdale College athletes.
A total of 181 Charger athletes were named to the G-MAC Academic All-Conference team for the 2020-21 school year. The team was announced by the G-MAC office this Thursday morning.
In order to earn Academic All-Conference honors, student athletes at G-MAC member institutions must have a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher, have completed at least one full academic year at the nominating institution, and be an active member of an athletic team.
Hillsdale's total of 181 athletes earning Academic All-Conference honors is an increase of 16 from the 165 Chargers that earned recognition in 2019-20, continuing a trend of an increasing number of honorees for another year. All told, Charger athletes with majors in 21 different disciplines exceeded the 3.3 GPA threshold to receive the honor, including seven athletes pursuing double majors.
More than half of all Hillsdale College student athletes met the criteria to earn Academic All-Conference honors. The Charger football team led the way in terms of raw numbers with 56 Academic All-Conference honorees, while women's cross county (91.6%) and women's basketball (85.7%) were tops in percentage of their roster receiving the honor. Men's tennis (77.8%), women's tennis (77.8%) and women's volleyball (71%) also posted high percentages of athletes earning recognition.
All told, 13 of Hillsdale's 14 athletic teams had 45% or more of their roster earn Academic All-Conference honors, and 11 of the 14 programs had at least half of their roster earn a 3.3 or better GPA in 2020-21.
For the G-MAC as a whole, 2,227 student-athletes earned Academic All-Conference honors, just shy of the record set last year of 2,254. 132 G-MAC student-athletes earned a cumulative perfect 4.0 GPA through the Spring 2021 semester.
A complete list of Hillsdale College's 2020-21 Academic All-Conference honorees can be found here.