NEW ORLEANS -- Chadron State College cross country runners Eric Yager and Alejandro Garcia were awarded All-Academic by the USTFCCCA coaches' association for the 2016 season, becoming the first-ever men's cross country athletes at CSC to earn the honor.

The individual All-Academic honor was awarded to those athletes who have compiled a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.25 and finished among the top 30 percent of eligible runners at a regional championship and/or the top half of the field at the NCAA Championships.

Yager, a junior education major from Hot Springs, S.D., carries a 3.67 GPA and finished 37th out of a field of 193 at the NCAA South Central Region Championships, hosted by MSU Denver in November. He finished the race in 33:01.3, setting a new personal best for a 10k cross country race, and was the Eagles' second finisher.

Garcia, who was named RMAC Academic Runner of the Year in December, was the first to cross for the Eagles at the regional. The senior captain from Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, finished the season with a 4.0 in health and physical education. He claimed 21st in the regional championship with a time of 32:20.3, which to that point was his personal best on an off-track 10,000 meter course. Two weeks later, at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, he bettered the mark by 36 seconds to take 65th place in 31:44.3.

Qualifying on the athletic criteria, but one grade shy of the academic mark, was Dylan Stansbury, who graduated in December with a 3.21 GPA and finished 40th at the regional.

Both teams qualified for the Team Academic Award as entire units. The men's team cumulative grade point average of 3.52 was edged out barely by the women's team GPA of 3.54. Teams must have compiled a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 and must have scored at an NCAA Division II regional meet to qualify for All-Academic awards.