Five Chadron State College track and field male athletes have been placed on the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Team.

They are Brandon Harrington, John Ritzen, Lanar Newman, Riley Northrup and Lincoln Proud. Harrington, Ritzen and Northrup each graduated in May, while Newman and Proud will be juniors in the fall.

All five have been stellar at CSC. Harrington, a Grand Island native and five-time Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference champion, placed eighth in the 110-meter hurdles to earn All-American status in May.

Newman of Kingston, Jamaica, was ninth in the nation in both the heptathlon and long jump during the indoor season. He also shared the RMAC’s Male Indoor Athlete of the Meet Award by winning the 55-meter hurdles and finishing second in all three jumping events.

Northrup, a Hot Springs, S.D., product, earned All-American honors in 2007 in the high jump, while Proud, a junior from Big Piney, Wyo., holds the school record in the 400-meter hurdles.

Ritzen, a Chadron native with a year of eligibility of remaining will begin graduate course work this fall. He has always been a consistent member of the track and football teams at CSC, and he lept a career best 47-4 ¾ in the triple jump at the RMAC indoor meet.

To qualify for the USTFCCCA All-Academic Track and Field Team, a student-athlete must have compiled a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 and have met either the NCAA Division II indoor or outdoor automatic or provisional qualifying standard.

The USTFCCCA also announced its scholar athletes of the year and the RMAC is well-represented.

Aaron Braun of Adams State is the indoor track scholar athlete of the year and Christopher Copeland of Saint Augustine’s is the field selection. Mark Husted of Colorado School of Mines is the outdoor track scholar athlete of the year and Mike Beeler of Pittsburg State is the field selection.