PORTLAND, Ore. – Forty-five Northwest Nazarene student-athletes earned the GNAC Faculty Athletic Representative Scholar-Athlete Award, presented by Barnes and Noble College.

To receive the honor, student-athletes had to have a cumulative GPA of 3.85 or greater through the Spring 2021 semester. Unlike the GNAC All-Academic teams, first-year student-athletes were eligible for the FAR award.

This year's 350 honorees is up from the previous record of 322 set in 2019-20 and well up from the 248 honorees recognized during the 2018-19 academic year.

A total of 159 honorees, accounting for over 45 percent of the award winners, are repeat honorees. The list includes 64 student-athletes (23 men, 41 women) who finished the 2020-21 academic year with a GPA of 4.00 or better.

The Nighthawks placed 31 women and 14 men on the teams. The 45 total honorees was second in the conference, behind just Central Washington's 61. Saint Martin's was third with 39, followed by Seattle Pacific at 34 and Montana State Billings and Western Washington tied at 33. 

Ben Johnson, Bethany Danner, Katie Heckathorn, and Heidi Nisly each received the honor for the fourth time during their NNU careers. Eleven Nighthawks earned recognition for the third time, while 13 others were named to the list for the second-straight year.

NNU's women's track & field squad earned the most recognitions of any Nighthawk team with 15. Women's soccer was next with six followed by baseball, softball, men's track and field, men's soccer, and volleyball all with four.

A faculty athletic representative (FAR) is a member of the faculty at an NCAA member institution who has been designated to serve as a liaison between the institution's faculty and the athletic department. The FAR serves as a representative of the institution in conference and NCAA affairs.