June 8, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - For the second consecutive year, Penn State men's gymnast Miguel Pineda (Galloway, Ohio) has been recognized on the Capital One Academic All-America® Men's At-Large First Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), honoring his standout efforts in the gym and in the classroom.
Pineda is the lone men's gymnast to be recognized on the first, second, or third Academic All-America teams in 2012 and stands as the only student-athlete in Penn State program history to earn the honor multiple times.
For Pineda, the First Team Academic All-America is the latest addition to an impressive list of awards he has earned in 2012. He was also honored with the 2012 Wayne Duke Postgraduate Award, Penn State's Ernest B. McCoy Memorial Award, and the Big Ten Medal of Honor and finished as first runner-up for the nationally prominent Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Award.
Pineda possesses a 3.98 grade point average in biology, ranking in the top one-half percent of his class. A two-time Big Ten Distinguished Honors Scholar recipient and three-time CGA First Team All-American Scholar Athlete, Pineda was instrumental in the men's gymnastics squad earning back-to-back Varsity `S' Awards, an honor presented to the Penn State men's and women's teams with the highest team GPA. In 2011, he received the prestigious NCAA Elite 88 Award.
Pineda, a 2012 finalist for the prestigious Nissen-Emery Award, played an integral role in Penn State's success this season, captaining a Nittany Lion squad that placed third at the National Collegiate Championships and boasted seven All-Americans, the program's most since the 1959 national championship team. He served as a cornerstone of the nation's No. 1 still rings line-up, ending the season individually ranked No. 4 in the event with two title wins and seven top three finishes. Pineda also made significant contributions in the parallel bars.
In 2011, at the National Collegiate Championships, Pineda set a career high in the rings, scoring a 15.900, to place first in the national qualifier and then followed it up by a second place finish in the individual event finals, earning his lone All-America honor. He also medaled in the still rings at the 2011 Big Ten Championships, placing third.
For his career, Pineda recorded 52 top three finishes, including 19 titles wins.