Twenty Waubonsee student-athletes and six Chiefs' teams were recognized by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) for their excellence in the classroom during the 2018-2019 academic year.
Four student-athletes achieved First Team Academic All-American honors with a 4.0 grade point average (GPA). That quartet includes golfer Erik Lenertz from Oswego, softball player Rebecca Sweeney from Newark, baseball player Tyler Venditti from Geneva, and women's cross country runner Victoria Esparza from Aurora West High School.
Waubonsee also had seven players honored with Second Team Academic All-American status by attaining an overall GPA of 3.80 through 3.99. That contingent consists of men's soccer player Fabian Saldana from Aurora Central Catholic High School, a trio of baseball players Kyle Ives from Fox River Grove, Matthew Burke from Carbondale, and Mitchell Stempowski from Geneva, women's soccer player Marisa VanWyhe from Waterman, and women's tennis players Mary Collum from Maple Park and Valerie Schallmo from Oswego.
Nine Chiefs received Third Team Academic All-American recognition with a GPA between 3.60 and 3.79 overall. The group includs softball players Alexandra Martin from Yorkville, Katy Shawke from Geneva and Maddie Kawall from Somonauk, along with baseball players Justin Sartori from Sandwich and Tyler Huntsha from McHenry. Women's basketball players Emily Uplegger from Geneva and Hayley Farren from Yorkville, women's tennis player Katelyn Biard from Elburn, and volleyball player Kendall Iverson from Aurora Central rounded out the contingent of individual honorees.
Waubonsee's Women's Cross Country team had the highest team grade point average among Chiefs' squads at 3.25 overall, tying them for 16th nationally among all junior college women's cross country squads. Other Chiefs' teams were recognized for achieving at least a 3.0 team grade point average to be among the NJCAA's Academic Team of the Year nominees. Those teams were Women's Softball (3.24), Women's Tennis (3.07), Women's Volleyball (3.06), Women's Basketball (3.04) and Men's Golf (3.03).