PORTLAND, Ore. – Thirteen Montana State University Billings track and field athletes earned academic All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference honors during the 2021-22 season, according to the conference's official release on Thursday.
 
MSUB's 13 nominees are an improvement over last year, which had 12 athletes win academic all-conference honors. This year's group features eight first-time winners and five three-time selections: Ase Ackerman, Sierra Durbin, Michaela Johnson, Kailee Stoppel and Logan Straus.
 
"I am proud of all of our academic award winners," MSUB head track and field coach Jonathan Woehl said. "Winning this award once, must less several times, as a student-athlete is a testament to how hard work pays off. Each one of them has excelled in their track events and in the classroom this year."
 
Highlighting MSUB's academic all-conference honorees, Brynn Jolma was one of 13 athletes (seven female and six male) with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. The sophomore health and human performance major placed 13^th in the weight throw during the GNAC Indoor Track and Field Championships and placed 13^th in the javelin during the conference outdoor meet. She ranks fifth all-time at MSUB in the weight throw and ninth in the javelin.
 
The five repeat winners – Ackerman, Durbin, Johnson, Stoppel and Straus – have combined for four school records and 10 top-five marks across indoor and outdoor track.
 
Durbin, a communication and media studies major from Moore, Mont., ran the middle distances in indoor track and focused on the 400-meter hurdles in outdoor track. Durbin's lifetime-best of 1:07.73 in the 400-meter hurdles is the fifth-fastest time in program history. She also ran a leg on MSUB's 4x400 meter relay at the GNAC outdoor meet.
 
A psychology major from Billings, Mont., Michaela Johnson graduates from MSUB with school records in the 60-meter dash, 60-meter hurdles, 100-meter hurdles and was part of MSUB's school-record-setting 4x100 relay as a freshman in 2017. Johnson competed in two meets this year; she ran the 100-meter dash twice and the 110-meter hurdles once.
 
The academic all-conference nod was another feather in Kailee Stoppel's cap, who put together the best indoor and outdoor track seasons of her collegiate career. A history major and a Billings native, Stoppel set the school record in the 800 meters with a 2:15.86 and placed third at the GNAC Indoor Championships. She was also an all-conference selection in the 3,000-meter steeplechase during outdoor season, in which she placed third at the conference meet. Including the 800-meter school record, Stoppel ran five lifetime bests this past year in the mile (5:21.02), 3,000 meters (10:45.34), 1,500 meters (4:45.13) and the 3,000-meter steeplechase (11:15.37) – all of which are top-10 marks in program history.
 
For the men, health and human performance majors Ackerman and Straus earned GNAC All-Conference honors for running on MSUB's third-place distance medley relay team at the indoor conference meet. At the conference outdoor championships, Ackerman placed sixth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a 9:29.70 and sixth in the 1,500 meters with a 3:52.12 – the second-fastest time in MSUB history. Along the way, he also ran MSUB's second-fastest indoor mile time (4:14.95) and took 10^th in the 3K at the conference outdoor meet. He also ran the fourth-fastest indoor 5K time in MSUB history with a 15:20.69.
 
In indoor season, Straus was MSUB's fastest 3K runner with an 8:39.52, which is the third-fastest time ever at MSUB. The Billings West alum ran lifetime PRs in the 5K (15:22.29, 6^th at MSUB) and the indoor mile (4:24.88, 8^th at MSUB). During outdoor season, he ran a lifetime-best 15:25.81 in the 5K (7^th at MSUB) and took 10^th at the conference meet in his 10K debut with a 32:11.13 (2^nd at MSUB).
 
Aside from Jolma, the MSUB women's track and field team had five more first-time all-academic honorees: Jordan Cookman, Grace Jones, Kendall Lynn, Aspen Tolman and Ally Whitmer.
 
The school record holder in the javelin, Cookman is a health and human performance major with a 3.65 GPA – the third-highest on the women's team. Cookman placed fifth at the GNAC meet in the javelin with a season-best 38.63m (126-9) toss, and she was MSUB's top hammer thrower this season with a mark of 40.99m (134-6), which ranks sixth in program history. She also competed in the weight throw at the conference indoor meet.
 
Jones, a fellow thrower who is majoring in business administration, took 10^th in the weight throw at the conference indoor meet with a 13.40m (43-11.75) throw. In outdoor season, her personal-best throw of 40.09m (131-6) in the hammer throw ranked 10^th all-time at MSUB.
 
A biology major from Three Forks, Mont., Lynn added to her decorated MSUB career by breaking the outdoor school record in the long jump with a mark of 5.39m (17-8.25). Lynn was the only jumper to place in the top five in both the long and the triple jumps at the indoor conference meet, plus she placed fourth in the triple jump in the outdoor conference meet with a season-best jump of 11.49m (37-8.5).
 
Health and human performance majors Aspen Tolman and Ally Whitmer round out the first-time award winners on the women's team. Tolman ran the 3K three times in indoor and the 5K once, setting collegiate PRs in both distances. Whitmer was one of the most versatile distance runners on the women's team – ranging everywhere from legs on the indoor 4x400 relay team, to running the 10,000 meters in outdoor track. Her 2:28.46 800-meter time at the Mountain State Games is the ninth-fastest 800-meter dash time in program history, plus the 41:50.59 10K time she ran at the conference outdoor meet is the sixth-fastest at MSUB.
 
Majoring in business administration with an emphasis on accounting, Jackson Bailey and Bryce Olson are the first-time academic all-conference award winners for the men's team. Bailey focused on the 800 meters in both indoor and outdoor seasons while also running legs on MSUB's 4x400 relays throughout the season. Olson, a sprinter and jumper, made his return during outdoor season and had his season-best triple jump of 12.34m (40-6) at the GNAC Outdoor Championships.
 
In order to make the team, athletes had to have a 3.20 GPA or greater, be a letterwinner on the team and have at least one year of experience competing for their current school.
 
Last weekend, the Yellowjacket men tied for seventh at the GNAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships and the women's team placed ninth. Individually, Forrest Cross won the discus and was one of four MSUB athletes to earn all-conference honors: Cross (discus and shot put), Bradley Graves (110-meter hurdles), Carson Jessop (3,000-meter steeplechase), Kailee Stoppel (3,000-meter steeplechase).