The high school cross country season is well behind us, the state championships having taken place at the end of Ocotober. But, that doesn’t mean that the awards have stopped coming for the girls squad at Plains High School. Each year, the Montana High School Association (MHSA), in cooperation with Montana’s Army National Guard recognizes academic excellence during each sport season (fall, winter, spring). The top three teams, by sport and by gender, are awarded Academic All-Team status based on first quarter academic performance.

For the 2012 Cross Country season, the award as the top academic team for Class B girls was awarded to none other than the Plains Trotters. With a collective team GPA of 3.738, the Trotters led the way over teams from Columbus (3.600) and Ronan (3.400). This academic achievement comes on top of the girls’ second place finish at the Western B Conference meet and fourth place performance at the State Championships. Scholastically, the team was led by the 4.00 individual GPA’s of Felicia Earhart and Demi Horton. The other team members and their GPA’s were Shannon Dimond (3.86), Carley VonHeeder (3.71), Kimberly Earhart (3.57) and Kayla Holmes (3.29).

“I’m extremely proud of this group of girls. It goes to show that academic and athletic success can go hand-in-hand. On top of these accolades, several of these girls are involved in other activities such as student council, National Honor Society, class officers and Upward Bound,” said head coach Tony Banovich. Banovich went on to say that “you have to remember that three of these girls were also All-State performers - Demi, Felicia and Kimberly finished 5th, 9th and 11th at the state championships. And, Felicia and Kimberly were also playing on the Volleyball team at the same time. This entire group of girls truly personify the term student-athlete. Every day they demonstrate that good things come to those who are willing to work hard and have a positive attitude.”

And, as fall rolled into winter, this group of girls has continued their success as student-athletes. All six are currently on the Trotter basketball squad (although Horton is not playing due to a forearm fracture suffered during an early season game). And, all six made the recently announced first semester honor roll (3.00 GPA and above) at Plains High School.