Cowboy Baseball Sets Academic Record

Oklahoma State baseball set a program record as they had 14 student athletes named to the 2020 Academic All-Big 12 Baseball Team on Wednesday.

(This article was generated by Oklahoma State Athletics Media Relations)

IRVING, Texas – Oklahoma State had 14 student-athletes named to the 2020 Academic All-Big 12 Baseball Team, including a program record number of first-team honorees.

After having nine Academic All-Big 12 First Team selections in each of the last four years, OSU posted a program record 10 first-team selections in 2020. The 14 total honorees also tied for the second-highest total in program history behind only the 2016 Cowboys, who had 15.

Highlighting the list of Cowboys is senior C.J. Varela, who earned Academic All-Big 12 First Team honors for the third time in his career. Joining Varela on the first team were fellow seniors Max Hewitt, Ben Leeper, Carson McCusker, Jacob Ruder and Ryan Van Leeuwen, juniors Dylan Gardner and Noah Sifrit, sophomore Roman Phansalkar and redshirt freshman Josh Spiegel.

Four Cowboys earned spots on the Academic All-Big 12 Second Team, with that list including seniors Cade Cabbiness and Alix Garcia and sophomores Brett Standlee and Mitchell Stone.

Along with Varela, a number of Cowboys have now collected Academic All-Big 12 plaudits multiple times in their respective careers. Cabbiness has been named to the team three times, while Gardner, Hewitt, Leeper, McCusker, Sifrit and Standlee earned the honor for the second time.

A total of 125 student-athletes were named to the 2020 Academic All-Big 12 Baseball Team, with 82 members on the first team and 43 second-team honorees.

To earn first-team honors, a student-athlete must maintain a 3.20 grade point average or better, while second-team selections hold a 3.00-3.19 GPA.

To qualify, student-athletes must maintain a 3.00 GPA or higher either cumulative or the previous two semesters. Freshmen and transfers are not eligible in their first year of academic residence.