| Five-time All-American Jennifer Leatherman became the fifth student-athlete at Penn State to garner Academic All-America accolades this year after earning top honors on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America? women??s track & field and cross country teams. She was named to the Academic All-America first team for the first time in her collegiate career |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; June 26, 2006 ?C Five-time All-American Jennifer Leatherman (Yellville, Ark.) became the fifth student-athlete at Penn State to garner Academic All-America accolades this year after earning top honors on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America? women??s track & field and cross country teams. Leatherman received Academic All-America honors in the University Division and was named to the Academic All-America first team for the first time in her collegiate career.
Leatherman is the 121st student-athlete at Penn State to garner Academic All-America honors. Leatherman graduated in May with a stellar 3.93 grade point average and a degree in recreation, parks and tourism management. She recently garnered her fifth All-America honor after she placed fifth in the hammer at the 2006 NCAA Division I Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships. In early June, Leatherman earned ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District II Honors. She captured her second-straight conference title in the hammer throw at the 2006 Big Ten Outdoor Championships as well as the conference discus title, finishing her career with three outdoor titles.
Leatherman was named the women's Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Athlete of the Year as voted by the league's head coaches. She shattered a facility and Penn State record with a mark of 219??01?? (66.78 meters) in the hammer at the Penn State Open in early May. The 2006 NCAA Division I Women's Indoor Field Athlete of the Year for the Mid-Atlantic Region, she won back-to-back Big Ten titles in the shot put and weight throw at the 2006 Big Ten Indoor Championships.
The average GPA for the 31 women who were named to the Academic All-America first team was a remarkable 3.869. 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. Honorees are selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), 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 or her current institution and be nominated by his or her sports information director. CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA encompassing all NCAA championship sports since 1952.