COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. --- South Dakota Mines senior Joel Haas and junior Margaret Thompson have earned Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Cross Country All-Academic First Team honors announced by the league office on Thursday afternoon from Colorado Springs Colorado while 11 other scholar-athletes where named to the RMAC Honor Roll.

Haas is a senior Civil Engineering major with a 3.870 GPA. As a senior he was one of the top runners for the Hardrockers this season with a third-place finish at the Black Hills State meet at the beginning of the season. His efforts helped the Hardrockers defeat the Yellow Jacket for the first time in over 20 years in the team standings.
 
"Joel's worked his tail off the last four years so it's great to see him recognized for his efforts," said Hardrocker cross country head coach Steve Johnson.

Margaret Thompson is a junior majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She has consistently helped the Hardrockers earn points and is one of their Top 5 runners. She helped earned a team victory at the Chadron State College meet this season in Nebraska.
 
"I'm very excited to see Margaret's name on this list. She's very deserving and is a great example of a true scholar-athlete," Johnson said.

The RMAC First Team All-Academic members, were voted on by the conference's Sports Information Directors. To be eligible for consideration, a student-athlete must carry a 3.30 cumulative grade point average and must have been an active student at the institution for at least two consecutive semesters or three consecutive quarters.  All students-athletes that meet those requirements, but were not voted First Team, automatically qualify for the RMAC Honor Roll.

The Hardrocker cross country scholar-athletes that earned RMAC Honor Roll accolades include:

Name	Yr.	Hometown	GPA	Major
Taylor Bright	Sr.	Casper, WY	3.858	Applied Biological Sciences; Biomedical Engineering Masters
Grant Bauer	So.	Highlands Ranch, CO	3.789	Chemical Engineering
Ben Colvin	Sr.	Kasson, MN	3.688	Mechanical Engineering
Brett Flerchinger	So.	Boise, ID	3.800	Mathematics
Ryan Moen	Jr.	Colorado Springs, CO	3.756	Chemical Engineering
Theron Singleton	Sr.	Pierre, SD	3.233	Civil & Environmental Engineering
Chase Wood	Sr.	Las Vegas, NV	3.472	Chemical Engineering
Alyssa Franke	So.	Rapid City, SD	3.818	Biomedical Engineering
Laramie Giles	Jr.	Sioux Falls, SD	3.356	Atmospheric Science and Meteorology
Nadia Kaczmarz	So.	La Grange Park, IL	3.900	Biomedical Engineering
Samantha Smith	Jr.	Aurora, CO	3.355	Biomedical Engineering

 
"Our scholar-athletes spend a lot of time on classwork and we appreciate the RMAC's recognition of their efforts. We're very proud of what our scholar-athletes accomplish on and off the course," Johnson added