DENVER  The Colorado Chapter of the National Football Foundation (CC/NFF) has released its 2023 Academic All-Colorado Scholar Teams with 21 Mountaineers earning first team honors and 10 more on the Honorable Mention list.

First-team honorees from Western Colorado begin with Ricky Freymond, a CC/NFF Scholar-Athlete of the Year finalist. Freymond posts a 3.56 grade-point average as a business administration major, and is also a first-team Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference All-Academic Team selection.

Joining Freymond on the Scholar-Athlete first team are teammates:

• Aidan Achtziger (3.40 GPA, computer science)
• DJ Allen Jr. (3.46, business administration)
• Jaden Armbrust (3.42, business administration)
• Cameron Colangelo (3.32, physics)
• Kyle Gaster (3.75, accounting)
• Zac Heaton (3.55, business administration)
• Ian Loomis (3.50, business administration)
• Jacob Naibauer (3.71, business administration)
• Drew Nash (3.72, ecosystem science)
• Taylor Nichols (3.33, business administration)
• Blake Nieslanik (3.78, business administration)
• Jace Perez (3.57, business administration)
• Cole Riters (3.41, business administration)
• Trevor Riters (3,75, economics)
• Nate Scharnhorst (3.88, business administration)
• Corey Scranton (3.69, exercise & sport science)
• Cy Shope (3.31, business administration)
• Chance Wiening (3.89, ecosystem science)
• Sage Yazzie (3.71, psychology)
• Jaydon Young (3.67, sociology)

The list of Mountaineers earning Honorable Mention are:

• Stevie Byron (3.19, sociology)
• Dylan Cardenas (3.03, psychology)
• Ryan Downard (3.22, physics)
• Lucas Hill (3.10, exercise & sport science)
• Bryce Lucas (3.01, exercise & sport science)
• Caden Measner (3.06, business administration)
• Daniel Parsek (3.28, exercise & sport science)
• Zayne Stam (3.28, physics)
• Adam Tasei (3.12, business administration)
• Logan White (3.26, environment and sustainability)

The CC/NFF release states that the criteria to qualify were a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher for first-team status, 3.00-3.29 GPA for honorable mention, and if the player was considered a regular performer in any or all three phases of the game (offense, defense, special teams).

There were a record 291 student-athletes from the 10 football-playing colleges in the state named to this year's Academic All-Colorado team.