Senior Mitch Richeson of The Ohio State University and senior Chris Pearson of Carnegie Mellon University head the 2004-2005 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Men's At-Large Teams, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
The Men's At-Large program for the Academic All-America program includes the sports of fencing, golf, gymnastics, hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, tennis, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.
Richeson, a native of Indianapolis, Ind., was selected as the Academic All-America of the Year in the University Division. A two-time Academic All-America selection after earning a spot on last year's team, the Buckeye standout swimmer posted a 3.98 cumulative grade point average as a Computer Science Engineering major at Ohio State while earning All-America accolades as the 2004 Big Ten Conference Diver of the Year.
"Wow, that is awesome," said Richeson upon being informed of the award. "It is such an honor because it is recognition for all the hard work you do in athletics and in academics. They consider so many great student athletes from a lot of sports and to be considered as the best of the best is a great honor. I have had a great year and college career, and this is a great way to cap things off."
Pearson, a native of Columbia, Md., was selected as the Academic All-America of the Year in the College Division. A two-time Academic All-America selection and another standout swimmer, he posted a 3.87 cumulative grade point average as an Electrical & Computer Engineering major at Carnegie Mellon while earning 26 All-America honors for the Tartans during his career.
"I am surprised and honored to be selected from along all talented student-athletes who were nominated," said Pearson. "I know how talented the pool of candidates was, and I am amazed at my selection."
Joining Richeson on the University Division Academic All-America first team squad were Minnesota's Guillermo Alvarez (Gymnastics) and Justin Mortimer (Swimming), Arizona State's Alejandro Canizares (Golf), Kentucky's Jeff Hamberg (Rifle), Texas Tech's Michael Innerebner (Tennis), Bemidji State's Peter Jonsson (Ice Hockey), Texas's David Kahn (Swimming), Penn State's Keith Kowal (Volleyball), Virginia Military Institute's Thomas Petykowski (Swimming), Clemson's Tommy Rappold (Swimming), Oklahoma State's Zack Robinson (Golf), Ohio State's Jason Rogers (Fencing), Alabama's Stewart Smith (Swimming) and Illinois's Alex Tirapelle (Wrestling).
The second team University squad was headed by a pair of standouts from Johns Hopkins's NCAA national championship lacrosse team in Peter LeSueur and Chris Watson along with 2005 Hobey Baker finalist Brett Sterling of Colorado College and former NCAA individual golf champion Ryan Moore of Nevada-Las Vegas. Also earning spots on the second team were California's Graham Ackerman (Gymnastics), Dayton's Rob Altenau (Tennis), Hofstra's Nikola Djordjevic (Tennis), Montana State's Marek Gebicki (Tennis), Navy's Clipper Lennon (Lacrosse), Purdue's Louis Paul (Swimming), Alabama's Vlad Polyakov (Swimming), Middle Tennessee State's Anant Sitaram (Tennis) and Cornell's Casey Stevenson (Lacrosse).
The third team University squad was comprised of Vermont's Lowell Bailey (Skiing), LSU's Leon Cannizzaro (Swimming), Georgia Tech's Roberto Castro (Golf), Harvard's Dov Grumet-Morris (Ice Hockey) and James Lawler (Swimming), Wisconsin-Green Bay's Shane Hoelz (Skiing), New Mexico's Lars Loeseth (Skiing), Seton Hall's Matt Miklius (Swimming), Nebraska's Matt Murray (Wrestling), Providence's Mark Rotella
(Lacrosse), Dartmouth's Lee Stempniak (Ice Hockey), Texas Tech's Bojan Szumanksi (Tennis), Washington's Alex Vlaski (Tennis) and Florida's Justin Zumsteg (Swimming).
Pearson was joined on the College Division Academic All-America first team by Colby's Nick Bayley (Ice Hockey), Whitworth's Cory Bergman (Swimming), Rose-Hulman's Dan Cloutier (Rifle), Rensselaer's Patrick Fell (Swimming), Emory's Jesse Ferlinato (Tennis), Augustana (S.D.)'s Aaron Graumann (Wrestling), Ithaca's Marc Israel (Wrestling), St. Thomas (Minn.)'s Dave Linn (Swimming), Augsburg's Mark Matzek (Wrestling), Washburn's Chris McGown (Golf), Rochester's Avinash Reddy (Tennis), Gustavus Adolphus's Pete Schwingler (Tennis), Carnegie Mellon's Boris Sofman (Tennis) and Luther's Garrett South (Wrestling).
The second team was led by a pair of Embry-Riddle tennis teammates in Nicolas Bousquet and Costin Corneanu and was also comprised of SUNY-Cortland's Brian Atkins (Lacrosse), New York University's Brian Berkey (Golf), Ohio Northern's Nick Frankle (Swimming), St. Thomas (Minn.)'s Lynn "Tut" Fuller (Tennis), Missouri-Rolla's Bill Gaul (Swimming), Elmhurst's Justin Hegner (Tennis), Assumption's James Newman (Tennis), Redlands' Nick Obie (Golf), Kenyon's Gabriel Rodrigues (Swimming), Springfield's Mike Shaw (Diving), Emory's John Sutter (Swimming), Gettysburg's Chase Stewart (Lacrosse) and Bentley's Colin Whooten (Tennis).
The third team was comprised by Emory's Brandon Burke (Swimming), Marian (Wis.)'s Ian Carroll (Ice Hockey), Whitman's Brad Changstrom (Tennis), Central (Iowa)'s Jason Ford (Tennis), Saint John's (Minn.) Adam Hanna (Ice Hockey), Barry's Thomas Hipp (Tennis), Brigham Young-Hawaii's Vanja Kalabic (Water Polo), Johns Hopkins' Jonathan Kleinman (Swimming), Willamette's Rio Kuteira (Golf), Wayne State (Mich.)'s David Lutz (Swimming), Sewanee's Matt Martelli (Swimming), Otterbein's Andrew Miller (Golf), Missouri-Rolla's Andy Shelley (Swimming), Rollins's Kyle Thompson (Swimming), Augsburg's Ryan Valek (Wrestling) and SUNY-Oneonta's Dustin Winn (Wrestling).
The Academic All-America Teams program honors 816 male and female student-athletes annually who have succeeded at the highest level on the playing field and in the classroom. Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America), a 2,000 member organization consisting of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.
To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.
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For more information about the Academic All-America Teams program, please visit www.cosida.com or e-mail rlipe@bentley.edu.