Article copied from Jamestown Post Journal (http://www.post-journal.com/sports/local-sports/2019/03/jamestown-cc-honors-jayhawks-for-athletic-academic-accomplishments/)

One by one Tuesday afternoon, members of the Jamestown Community College wrestling team were called to the podium at the Hamilton Collegiate Center on campus. After a short biography was read by George Sisson, the school's director of athletics and recreation, each student-athlete received a framed photograph to commemorate their season.

And what a season it was.

To review, sophomore Cameron Page, wrestling at 184 pounds, placed third at the NJCAA Championships to earn All-American honors for the second straight year. It also marked the third straight season that a Jamestown CC wrestler reached that status under Coach Kris Schimek, who incidentally earned a place in the Region 3 Hall of Fame.

Meanwhile, six other Jayhawks — Nick Kozlowski (133), Wyatt Holley (197), Ben Winkler (141), Nick Jones (285), Dan Torres (174) and Paul Manning — also made the trip to Council Bluffs, Iowa, making it the largest contingent of national qualifiers in the program's history.

Even with all that success on the mat, Schimek's squad, which also included So Murata, Caleb Palmatier and Josh Snyder, may have earned an even bigger honor after being named the recipient of the All-Academic Award for having the best grade-point average of all the NJCAA programs in the country.

That accomplishment wasn't lost on Schimek yesterday.

"I think it just adds to the culture we're trying to create here," he said. "I tell these guys when we start the year that this isn't about just wrestling, or even being a student. It's about teaching them to be an adult, become a young man and learn how to live your life in a positive manner moving forward."

Interestingly enough, a handful of wrestlers, Schimek said, had some academic struggles early in the first semester, but they turned it around in a dramatic fashion by the end of the season.

"I sat them down and I said, 'You guys need to come here before practice and study as a team every Friday,'" Schimek recalled. "Guys kind of looked at me kind of funny. I said, 'OK, if you don't want to do that, don't ever come back here again.' That's kind of the game we're dealing with, and they responded well. Everything got better from there. … We just had to lock it down and get focused."

Schimek could speak from experience, noting that as a student-athlete at Niagara County CC his GPA went from a 2.6 in the fall semester to 3.7 in the spring semester.

"It's just the culmination of coming from the summer, going back into school, getting into practice, trying to get in the weight room, trying to get your weight down," Schimek said. "You've got 8 million things going on and school kind of gets pushed to the wayside, and it shouldn't."

It's clear the Jayhawks got things straightened out in a big way — on and off the mat — by season's end.

"It's been a good year," Schimek said, "but it's not even close to where I want to be. I'll never be happy until we win 20 titles. If that happens, maybe then I'll retire and be happy."