Cutting, Barton named CSC Academic All-Americans

Carter Cutting and Ben Barton were named among 46 men’s track and field and cross country athletes across Division I athletics as College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-Americans for the 2025-26 season, the organization announced Tuesday.

Author Ethan Tanner
Cutting, Barton named CSC Academic All-AmericansCutting, Barton named CSC Academic All-Americans

GREENWOOD, Ind. – Carter Cutting and Ben Barton were named among 46 men’s track and field athletes across Division I athletics as College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-Americans for the 2025-26 season, the organization announced Tuesday.

To qualify, student-athletes must be at least a sophomore academically and athletically, must hold a GPA of at least 3.50 and rank in the top 50 at the 2025 NCAA Regionals or in a Track and Field Results Reporting System (TFRRS) regional event. Relay marks may support but not determine eligibility.

The Cougars join ten other Divison I universities to honor multiple men’s Academic All-American athletes this season including Kansas State, Utah State, Tennessee, North Dakota State, US Naval Academy, Virginia, North Carolina, Butler, Arkansas and Minnesota. The University of Virginia led the group honoring the most athletes with four for the 2025-26 season.

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Carter Cutting became the eighth BYU athlete to ever claim First Team Academic All-American honors, doing so on the heels of an indoor track season where he set the BYU school record in the mile clocking a 3:52.84 at the David Hemry Valentine Invitational in February to push his record nearly two seconds ahead of former NCAA indoor mile national champion and record holder Miles Batty. The junior ended the indoor season crowned the Big 12 champion in the mile and the NCAA national champion in the same event. Cutting also helped the distance medley relay team place sixth at the NCAA National Championship with a 9:35.98 finish.

The Wilsonville, Oreg. product, who has a GPA of 3.81 and studies finance, carried that momentum into the outdoor season where he claimed the BYU 1500-meter school record with a 3:35.95 performance at the NCAA National Championship where he finished on the podium in eighth. Cutting notably also set the No. 7 all-time BYU record in the outdoor 800m with a 1:47.02 at the BYU Robison Invitational and was named the 2026 Big 12 Men’s Scholar Athlete of the Year.

Just last week Cutting broke his own BYU school record in the 1500m at the Sunset Tour in Los Angeles crossing the line in 3:34.34 and taking second overall. The junior has broken the BYU record across two events, four different times this year.

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Ben Barton was named a Second Team Academic All-American for the second straight year in a season that saw him finish fifth at the NCAA indoor national championship in the heptathlon with a BYU all-time best 6,025 points to be the first Cougar ever to top 6,000 points in the event. The senior, who ended his academic career with a GPA of 3.75 and graduated with a degree in exercise science, ended his collegiate athletic career standing at the top of the podium as the NCAA decathlon national champion. The Bloomfield Hills, Mich. product set the BYU No. 2 all-time record in the event at the national meet with a 8,169 point performance that sits just behind the last Cougar to claim the national title in the event, Tito Steiner, more than 45 years ago.

Barton joins a shortlist of just six BYU men’s track and field athletes to earn multiple Academic All-American honors, joining Casey Clinger, Connor Mantz, Miles Batty, John Hedengren and Ed Eyestone. The senior was also named the 2026 USTFCCCA Mountain Region Men’s Field Athlete of the Year.

To see the full list of honorees, visit the CSC Website.