For the second straight season, the UNO hockey team has earned a public recognition award from the NCAA for its success in Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores.
UNO is one of 11 NCAA Division I men’s hockey teams to earn the honor and the only one from the NCHC. The Mavericks achieved an APR score in the top 10% of all Division I hockey programs for the most recent multiyear data, 2015-19.
Other schools that received the honor were Brown, Clarkson, Colgate, Connecticut, Harvard, UMass Lowell, Michigan State, Penn State, Princeton and Yale.
The only other NCHC team ever to earn a public recognition award was Colorado College in 2014, following the conference’s first season.
UNO has been a leader in academic recognition by the NCHC, pacing the conference in Academic All-Conference recipients four times. This season, the Mavs placed 13 players on the NCHC Academic All-Conference list and seven on the Distinguished Scholar-Athletes list.
The APR is an annual scorecard of academic achievement calculated for all Division I sports teams. It measures eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a clear picture of the academic performance for each team in every sport.
10 athletes who defined UNO's first 10 years in Division I athletics
Tyler Fox, baseball (2013-16)
The two-time Summit League pitcher of the year finished with a school-record 30 D-I wins and a 2.98 ERA. “All those wins are team wins. I don’t own any single one of them. I’m just extremely grateful for all of it,” he said in 2016. Fox was also third in career strikeouts for the Mavs.
Payton Kinney, baseball (2017-19)
UNO doesn’t make the NCAA tournament — its first in D-I — without last season’s Summit League pitcher of the year, who helped the Mavs sweep the conference and regular-season titles. Good news for UNO came when he was granted a sixth year of eligibility in 2019, when he finished 11-2 with a 1.96 ERA and 111 strikeouts to earn third-team All-America honors. The right-hander from Norris also tossed a no-hitter in 2018.
CJ Carter, men's basketball (2011-15)
The Omaha Benson grad was a second-team All-Summit selection after finishing his career fifth on the program’s scoring list (1,502 points), averaging 16.9 points per game as a senior. But that only tells part of the story. When he committed to UNO, the Mavs were in Division II. The move to D-I meant they wouldn’t be eligible for the NCAA tournament while the school was in a four-year transition period. It didn’t matter. Carter stuck with UNO and also ranks in the school’s top 10 in career steals and assists. Since his career ended, several other Metro standouts have followed his path to the school.
Tra-Deon Hollins, men's basketball (2015-17)
The two-time first-team All-Summit guard was also the league’s defensive player of the year as a junior and senior. The Omaha Central grad led Division I in steals (127) with 3.97 per game as a junior. And he helped the 2016-17 team captivate fans with a run to the Summit League tournament final, where his shot as time expired nearly produced the program’s first NCAA tournament bid. Though the 3 bounced off the rim and UNO lost 79-77 to South Dakota State, it was quite a ride.
Mikaela Shaw, women's basketball (2013-17)
A forward out of Sandy Creek High School, Shaw became the first UNO women’s player to reach 1,800 points, 900 rebounds and 310 assists. When her career ended in 2017, Shaw was second in points (1,809), sixth in rebounds (901), eighth in assists (314) and first in games started (117). Shaw was a first-team all-conference pick as a junior and second-team as a sophomore and senior. She led UNO in scoring and rebounding in each of her last three seasons.
Josh Archibald, hockey (2011-14)
The NCHC player and forward of the year in 2014 was a first-team All-American — the second in program history — after leading the Mavs in scoring. His 29 goals that year broke the school record and ranked third nationally. The Hobey Baker Award finalist even led the Mavs in penalty minutes before he bypassed his senior season to sign with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was also a member of Pittsburgh’s 2017 Stanley Cup winning team.
Jake Guentzel, hockey (2013-16)
Before his record-setting playoff run in his rookie season with Stanley Cup champs Pittsburgh in 2017, the Omahan was making program history for the Mavs — he scored UNO’s first (and only) goal in the 2015 Frozen Four. Guentzel is seventh in points (119) and sixth in assists (79) in program history. He was voted to the NHL All-Star Game this season, but will be sidelined due to a shoulder injury.
Austin Ortega, hockey (2013-17)
The Californian became the first player in UNO history to record three 20-goal seasons, finishing his career second with 70 goals and fourth with 139 points. But Ortega was best in crunch time. The NCHC first-teamer and second-team All-American in 2017 tied an NCAA record with 23 career game-winners. A member of UNO’s Frozen Four team in 2015, his 11 winners that year were the best single-season total in NCAA history.
The 2017 men's soccer team
The Mavs started the season 6-0 to jump to the program’s highest ranking. And for the first time, the Mavs were going to the NCAA tournament. It only took a shootout win over Denver — an 11-rounder that UNO won 9-8 — in the Summit final to earn the bid. Eleven Mavs were named to the all-conference teams that season. Again: This was a program that didn’t even exist at the beginning of the 2010s. This breakthrough wasn’t just about the players on the team, either. Though the Mavs lost their first NCAA tournament game, it was a feel-good story for the program built with a mix of local players and others who didn’t get a shot at major-conference schools. (How can you pick one player from this group for the all-decade team?)
Sami Spenner, track and field (2010-14)
The multisport standout at Columbus Scotus began her career as a volleyball player for Wayne State before rising to national prominence as she battled NCAA eligibility rules to compete at nationals in track and field. She starred in multievents and jumps, accounting for 40 points at the 2013 Summit League championships, where she won the pentathlon, long jump and triple jump as a junior. As a senior, she was the Summit League’s field athlete of the year for the indoor and outdoor seasons and set the American collegiate record in the pentathlon (4,498 points) at the U.S. indoor track and field championships.
mike.patterson@owh.com, 402-444-1350,
Mike Patterson
Mike covers high school sports, primarily volleyball in the fall, girls basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring and summer. He also reports on horse racing for The World-Herald. Follow him on Twitter @MPattersonOWH. Phone: 402-444-1350.
