PORTLAND, Ore. – With the highest number of student-athletes honored among all Great Northwest Athletic Conference teams, the Montana State University Billings baseball team has nine players who have been named to the academic all-conference squad announced by the conference office Tuesday.
 
Leading the way for MSUB as a three-time repeat selection was senior Brady Muller, and Lucas Blehm, Lee Busto, and Blake Loran were also each repeat selections. Earning the honor for the first time were Jake Campeau, Conner Holbrook, Casey Merritt, Jake Mills and Trevor Nix.
 
"Our guys have been terrific academically during the past couple of years," said MSUB head coach Rob Bishop. "I am proud of all nine of these guys for their efforts on and off the field. We strive to have guys have a great student-athlete experience in our program and they have definitely done their part to help make this happen."
 
Campeau held the top grade point average for the 'Jackets with a 3.70 in health and human performance. Blehm, Loran, and Mills are all studying accounting and have GPAs of 3.51, 3.65 and 3.23, respectively.
 
Busto and Muller are both management majors and hold GPAs of 3.65 and 3.42, respectively. Holbrook is majoring in biology and has a GPA of 3.51, Merritt is a health and human performance major with a 3.38 GPA, and Nix is studying environmental science with a GPA of 3.51.
 
Overall, 26 players from the GNAC earned the academic honor, giving MSUB more than one third of the total honorees. Tyler Marsh of Northwest Nazarene had the conference's highest GPA with a 3.84, and the Crusaders had eight players on the academic all-conference team.
 
Muller was one of five players in the GNAC who were honored for the third year in a row. Blehm, Busto and Loran were three of seven total players who repeated as academic all-conference selections.
 
All nine of the Yellowjackets honored were also inducted into MSUB's Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Society, which honors student-athletes at the university who maintain a GPA of at least 3.40 while competing in a varsity sport.
 
The requirements for GNAC academic all-conference recognition are a 3.20 GPA, a player being in his second year of competition with his team and having competed in at least 50 percent of the team's games.
 
The Yellowjackets, who are in a tie for first place in the GNAC standings at 18-10 in conference play, are headed to Lacey, Wash., this weekend for their final regular season series against Saint Martin's. MSUB has an opportunity to host the GNAC Championships, if it finishes the regular season in first place in the conference standings.