Snow College Puts a Record 123 Athletes on NJCAA Academic Teams

Snow College placed a school-record 123 student-athletes on the 2025-26 NJCAA All-Academic Teams, spanning 13 sports, the junior college in Ephraim announced. The headline within the headline: Snow's men's basketball team posted a cumulative 3.67 GPA, the best of any men's basketball program in the NJCAA.

The 123 honorees break down into 30 first-team selections (4.0 GPA), 50 second-team selections (3.80-3.99 GPA) and 43 third-team honorees (3.60 and above). Thirty Snow athletes, in other words, carried perfect grade-point averages through a full competitive year.

A number worth breaking down

Women's soccer led the program with 20 honorees, followed by men's soccer with 14, softball with 13, and both football and men's cross country/track with 12 apiece. Volleyball added 11, women's basketball and women's wrestling nine each, men's basketball and men's wrestling eight apiece, and women's cross country/track seven.

That spread — across 13 sports — is what makes the achievement a program-wide result rather than one strong classroom in one locker room. Snow did not post the number on the back of a single team; it earned it across nearly its entire athletic department.

The men's basketball GPA is the standout

The single most quotable line is the men's basketball mark. A cumulative team GPA of 3.67 ranked first among all NJCAA men's basketball programs nationally, according to Snow's release — a national No. 1 that has nothing to do with wins and losses.

For a junior-college program, that distinction carries recruiting weight. Transfer destinations and four-year coaches evaluate more than film, and a nationally leading team GPA is a concrete, verifiable signal to the next level. It is the kind of academic marker that travels with a player into recruiting conversations.

How the NJCAA teams are earned

The three-tier structure explains the scale. First-team status requires a perfect 4.0 GPA, second team spans 3.80 to 3.99, and third team covers 3.60 and above. Snow's 30 first-team selections mean 30 athletes carried perfect marks through a competitive season; the 50 second-team and 43 third-team honorees fill out a department-wide band of high performers rather than a handful of standouts.

The men's basketball GPA sits inside that same framework as the outlier. A 3.67 cumulative average would place individual players in third-team territory, but as a full-roster figure it topped every men's basketball program in the NJCAA — a national ranking earned entirely off the court.

The pathway runs through the classroom

Snow's athletes are, by design, in transit: junior-college rosters feed four-year programs, and academic eligibility is a load-bearing part of that pathway. A transfer needs the grades to be eligible when he or she arrives, which is why a nationally leading team GPA or a 4.0 individual mark functions as transfer currency, not just a plaque. The Utah JUCO pipeline runs through SLCC, Snow and USU Eastern, and the 123 honorees are the academic ledger behind that pathway.

One name on the 4.0 list shows the pathway at work. Running back Seth Rigtrup, a first-team honoree for Snow football, is now on Weber State's 2026 roster, one of the moves documented on Beehive Athletes' Utah JUCO pipeline tracker.

Thirty perfect grade points

The 30 first-team selections are the sharpest figure inside the total. A 4.0 carried across a full competitive year — while traveling for games and practicing on a junior-college calendar — is the hardest version of the honor to earn, and Snow produced 30 of them. Women's soccer supplied the largest single-sport contingent at 20 honorees, a figure that on a roster of that size means academic recognition reached into the depth of the team rather than a handful of names at the top.

Men's basketball is the counterweight. Its eight honorees is one of the smaller per-sport totals, yet the roster's 3.67 cumulative GPA still ranked first nationally among NJCAA men's programs — the one place in the list where the team average, not the raw count, is the record. Between a 20-deep soccer list and a small but top-ranked basketball roster, the recognition was not confined to one type of team.

Snow's release names every first-team honoree. Women's soccer had six: Adelle Grimley, Carly Knudsen, Hadley Leonard, Madelyn Moss, Emily Noorda and Madi Thurgood. Men's basketball had four: Aaron Bliss, Keagan Caton, Easton Hawkins and James Rust, so half of that program's eight honorees carried perfect marks. Football also had four: Rayden Heintz, Jaden Manwaring, Seth Rigtrup and Dallin Sweat. Men's soccer added William Fausett, Josh Kilsby and Francisco Madeira, and women's cross country and track added Lilly Bailey, Ambree Jones and Aidan Pehrson.

The rest of the 4.0 list spans the department: softball's Brynlee Riedle and Molly Roberts, volleyball's Aleah McDaniel and Sydney Short, men's wrestling's Braden Bowman and Josiah Wickard, men's cross country and track's Charlie Cook and Vaughn Wallace, women's basketball's Hartlynn Richins and women's wrestling's Samantha Reynolds.

Key facts:

• Total honorees: 123 student-athletes — a Snow College record
• Sports represented: 13
• Team breakdown: 30 first-team (4.0 GPA), 50 second-team (3.80-3.99), 43 third-team (3.60+)
• National mark: Snow men's basketball posted a 3.67 cumulative GPA — No. 1 among NJCAA men's basketball programs
• Top sport by count: Women's soccer, 20 honorees; men's soccer, 14; softball, 13
• Source date: Snow College Athletics release, July 30, 2026
• 4.0 football honorees: Rayden Heintz, Jaden Manwaring, Seth Rigtrup and Dallin Sweat
• 4.0 men's basketball honorees: Aaron Bliss, Keagan Caton, Easton Hawkins and James Rust