Champions in the classroom

ALPENA, Mich. — For Alpena Community College cross country coach Mark Jacobs, his biggest goal is to teach life lessons to his runners. One of those life lessons is to excel in the classroom. For the past six years, the ACC cross country program has earned academic all-American honors.

However, the 2020 season was more special for Jacobs. For the first time ever, the Lumberjacks earned the highest cumulative grade point average (3.85 GPA) out of all junior colleges in the country.

“This is the proudest moment of my coaching career,” said Jacobs. “These guys work very hard. It was a very difficult semester, they had to deal with a mix of online learning and face-to-face learning. These guys absolutely rocked it and I’m excited for them.”

Not only that, six Lumberjack runners earned individual academic all-American honors. Below is the list of athletes who were honored for their hard work in the classroom.

Individual All-American Academic Honors: 
Teddy Peters
Connor Bagnell
Rony Demirkol
Musa Kabbah
Yuki Nishibashi
Duncan Ross