COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Three Chadron State programs – women's golf, women's indoor track and field and women's outdoor track and field – have been honored by the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with 2025 Brechler Awards, given to the RMAC program in each sport with the best cumulative GPA.
The trio of wins for Chadron State ties a school record for most Brechler Awards in a single season and marks the first year with three honorees since 2015-16 and CSC's fourth total year with multiple programs winning the honor.
In the 2024-25 academic year, Chadron State's three Brechler awards were the third-most in the 15-team RMAC, trailing Colorado Mesa and Regis who had four wins each. As an athletic department, Chadron State now has 13 Brechler awards in the 12-year history of the awards being given out.
Under head track and field coach Jake Gruver, CSC's women's track program swept the indoor and outdoor awards, with the indoor team putting together a 3.73 team GPA and the outdoor team sealing a 3.75 cumulative GPA.
It is the first Brechler award win in program history for the outdoor team and the second win and first since 2016-17 for the indoor team, which now becomes the second Chadron State program to win multiple Brechler awards alongside football (four in 2013, 2017-2019).
Women's golf also took down the league's top academic team honor with a sparkling 3.75 GPA. Dr. John Ritzen's squad of six athletes included four freshmen, as well as the 2024-25 Summit Award winner in junior Aubree Heinsma. It is the first-ever program Brechler win for CSC women's golf.
Established in 2012-13, the Brechler Awards recognize the conference's top team grade point average (GPA) in each of its 22 sports. Grades were used from the 2024-25 academic year. All student-athletes who were on the institution's NCAA eligibility list were included in the teams' GPA calculation. The team GPA is calculated by dividing the total quality points for each semester by the total number of credits. Team GPAs were submitted to the RMAC Office by each institution's compliance administrator.
The award is named after Paul W. Brechler, a former RMAC Commissioner (1976-1990), who, along with his wife Wanda, were the first inductees into the RMAC Hall of Fame. Paul was also the former athletic director of the University of Iowa and served as Commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
The Brechler Award winners will be recognized during the 2025 RMAC Hall of Fame & Awards Banquet on Thursday, July 10, at the Colorado Springs Marriott. Doors will open at 5 p.m. MT, and the induction and awards ceremony will follow promptly at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at RMACSports.org/Tickets.
