June 11, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State senior women's gymnast Brandi Personett (Katy, Texas) has been named an ESPN The Magazine Second Team Academic All-American, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced Thursday.
Personett is Penn State's ninth Academic All-American this year and the 159th Nittany Lion to be named a CoSIDA Academic All-American, the nation's third highest total. Penn State has had 111 Academic All-Americans since Tim Curley became Director of Athletics in December of 1993, a total higher than any Big Ten institution has all-time since the Academic All-America program's inception in 1952.
Personett, who holds a 3.77 in nursing, is a five-time first team All-American and finished second in the nation on floor at the 2010 NCAA National Championships. She earned All-America status on beam in 2008, floor in 2009 and beam, floor and the all-around this season. A four-time All-Big Ten First Team selection, Personett was honored as the Big Ten Gymnast of the Year for the second year in a row at the 2010 Big Ten Gymnastics Championship and was a five-time Big Ten Gymnast of the Week during her senior season. In addition, Personett was one of four finalists for the Honda Award for women's gymnastics and one of six finalists for the AAI Award.
The Women's At-Large program for Academic All-America includes the sports of bowling, crew, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, skiing, tennis and water polo. Personett was one of six gymnasts to be named to the three Academic All-America squads, which totaled 45 women's student-athletes from across the nation in the listed Division I at-large sports.
To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a 4.00 scale, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at her institution and be nominated by her sports information/athletic communications director. Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 15,000 student-athletes in Division I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.