Pistons Alumni Cole Smith is excelling both on and off the ice! The Pistons would like to congratulate Cole on being named to the 2016-17 National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) Academic All Conference Team.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Seven University of North Dakota freshman were named to the 2016-17 National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) Academic All-Conference Team on Wednesday, including a league-leading six who also earned NCHC Scholar-Athlete Team recognition.
The seven Fighting Hawks who were named to the academic all-conference team included forwards Dixon Bowen, Ludvig Hoff, Casey Johnson, Andrew Peski, Colton Poolman, Cole Smith and Zach Yon. To achieve such distinction, a student-athlete must compile a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or better and have completed a full academic year at his institution.
From that group, Hoff, Johnson, Peski, Poolman, Smith and Yon were also named to the NCHC’s Scholar-Athlete Team, which recognizes student-athletes who attain a GPA of 3.50 or better with a full year of academic studies. Freshmen and first-year transfers were not eligible for either honor when first announced in February as they had not yet completed a full academic year.
The addition of the freshmen today gave UND a total of 22 honorees on the 2016-17 NCHC Academic All-Conference Team, its most since the league began play in 2013-14. The Fighting Hawks named to the team in February included Ryan Anderson, Brock Boeser, Danys Chartrand, Rhett Gardner, Mike Gornall, Matt Hrynkiw, Joel Janatuinen, Cam Johnson, Austin Poganski, Tucker Poolman, Hayden Shaw, Johnny Simonson, Matej Tomek, Chris Wilkie and Christian Wolanin.
Additionally, UND’s nine NCHC Scholar-Athlete Team selections are also a program record. The six freshman named today joined the previously-recognized Anderson, Poganski and Simonson.
Beginning next season, members of the NCHC Scholar-Athlete Team will instead be referred to as NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes, as approved by the NCHC Athletic Council in April.