MADISON – Darlington High School graduates Alex Erickson and Tyson Miehe were among the 62 fall sports student-athletes from the University of Wisconsin-Madison to be named to the Academic All-Big 10 team.
    Erickson, a senior majoring in Agricultural Business Management, was one of 27 members of the Badger football team to be recognized with the honor; while Miehe, a sophomore majoring in  Kinesiology, was one of the seven members of the men’s cross country team recognized by the Big 10.
    To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten selection, students must be letterwinners who are in at least their second academic year at their institution and carry a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.
    The football team led the way with 27 honorees, while the men’s soccer team followed with 11 honorees. The Wisconsin women’s soccer team, co-champions of the Big Ten Conference this season, had seven members earn Academic All-Big Ten plaudits. The women’s cross country team had eight honorees, the men’s cross country squad had seven, while UW’s volleyball team had two.
    Erickson, the son of Mike and Linda Erickson and a 2011 graduate of Darlington High School, also received All-Big 10 recognition for his play on the football field, earning first-team honors in a vote of the media members and second-team honors in a vote by the league’s coaches.
    Erickson was one of two Badgers named to a Big 10 first-team among UW’s 12 league honorees, and he was just one of four offensive players to make the All-Big 10 team.
    Erickson has averaged 77.0 receiving yards per game, ranking third in the Big Ten. The Badgers’ leading receiver with 924 yards, he needs 76 more in UW’s bowl game to become the fourth player in school history with a 1,000-yard receiving season.
    Among Big Ten players, only Michigan State’s Aaron Burbridge (75) has caught more passes than Erickson, who has tallied 72 grabs on the year and needs six more to match UW’s single-season school record of 78.
    Both of Wisconsin’s first-team All-Big Ten selections began their careers as walk-ons. In addition to Erickson, senior OLB Joe Schobert was a consensus first-team selection on defense and was named Butkus-Fitzgerald Linebacker of the Year.
    Senior left tackle Tyler Marz was a second-team pick of the media and a third-team selection by the coaches, while sophomore TE Troy Fumagalli earned consensus honorable mention All-Big Ten recognition and redshirt freshman offensive linemen Michael Deiter, who has started all 12 games while logging time at both guard and center for the Badgers, earned honorable mention from the media.
    Joining Schobert on the defensive squad were senior Michael Caputo (S, second-team consensus), junior Vince Biegel (OLB, third-team consensus), and honorable mention selections freshman ILB T.J. Edwards (coaches), senior CB Darius Hillary (coaches), senior S Tanner McEvoy (consensus), sophomore DE Chikwe Obasih (media) and junior CB Sojourn Shelton (media).
    Miehe, the son of Arnie and Ann Miehe and a 2014 graduate of Darlington High School, placed 83rd overall for the Badgers at the 2015 Big 10 Cross Country Championships on Nov. 1, and 103rd overall at the 2015 NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet held in Madison on Nov. 13.
    The Badgers finished eighth as a team at the Big 10 Championships, and then placed sixth among the 30 teams at the NCAA Regional to snap a 43-year streak of NCAA National Meet appearances by UW.
    Miehe was the team’s fifth runner at the Big 10 Meet, finishing the 8,000-meter course at the Sydney R. Murovitz Golf Course along Lake Michigan in a time of 25:20.7.
    At the NCAA Regional on UW’s home course, he was the sixth Badger across the finish line, covering the 10,000-meter Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in 32:56.2.
    Michigan won the Big 10 men’s title this season, and also won the NCAA Regional Meet.