UAA basketball piling up accolades

For the second straight week, the men's and women's teams are both ranked No. 2 in the West Region rankings released Wednesday, and eight Seawolves were named to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference all-academic team.

A GNAC-best five UAA men made the team, led by junior Liam Gibcus, a civil engineering major from Lysterfield, Australia, who carries a 3.84 grade-point average.

Senior Hanna Johansson (3.66), a journalism and public communications major from Gothenburg, Sweden, made the team for the third time and holds the highest GPA of the three UAA women honored.

Johansson also became the second player in UAA history to be named to the Capital One Academic All- America third team, distinguishing herself as one of the top 15 student-athletes in NCAA Division II. UAA's Allegra Stoetzel made the first team in 1996, after being named to the third team in 1995.

Joining Johansson on the GNAC all-academic squad was junior Alysa Horn (3.56, physical education) and sophomore Kylie Burns (3.53, undeclared).

Joining Gibcus from the men's team were seniors Steve White (3.48, physical education) and Phillip Hearn (3.34, civil engineering) and sophomores Kyle Fossman (3.58, accounting) and Travis Thompson (3.35, engineering).

For five men to make the all-academic team is a program record, and Gibcus' 3.84 GPA leads the conference on the American scale, but Simon Fraser's Zachary Frehlick produced a 4.15 GPA on the Canadian grading scale, so the two will share the high-GPA honor for the second straight season.

The 6-foot-10 Gibcus has played well on the court in recent weeks as well, notching his best conference game when he scored 10 points in a win over Saint Martin's last week to help the men maintain second place in the GNAC with a 14-3 conference record.

Johansson has been an on-court leader for the UAA women all season, averaging 13.8 points per game and 9.2 rebounds to propel the Seawolves to a 15-2 conference record and a clinching of first place.

The men and women will both play their final regular season game this week. Ranked 20th nationally, the men will be in Fairbanks tonight to take on UAF at 7, and the eighth-ranked women will host UAF at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex at 7 p.m. Saturday.