May 20, 2013
Complete CoSIDA Academic All-District Teams (PDF)
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- A quartet of Penn State student-athletes earned 2013 Capital One Academic All-District® At-Large selections from College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). On the men's side, wrestler Matt Brown was the lone Penn State honoree, while all three nominated student-athletes from the women's side earned first-team distinction; field hockey forward Kelsey Amy, lacrosse midfielder Tatum Coffey and swimmer Gabi Shishkoff.
First-team Academic All-District® honorees advance to the Capital One Academic All-America® Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team Academic All-America® honorees will be selected later in May.
The four, first-team selections are tied for the most in school history, which also happened in 2006-07, and the three, first-team women's selections are also tied for top billing with the 2006-07 class.
Penn State was one of five Division I universities to have all three of their men's or women's nominations selected to the Academic All-District Team. The Nittany Lions were joined by women's programs from Alabama (District 4), Navy (District 2), North Carolina (District 3) and North Dakota (District 6). Overall, the four total selections for Penn State were tied for third nationally behind Navy's six total selections and Alabama's five total representatives.
Earning District II Academic All-District honors for the second consecutive year, Amy looks to earn Academic All-America honors for the second straight year. The Sweet Valley, Pa. native was named a First Team NFHCA All-American for the second consecutive year and earned her fourth nod to the NFHCA National Academic Squad. The Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, Amy was named to the All-Mideast Region First Team for the fourth straight year and earned First Team All-Big Ten for the third time in her career.
The forward was named the Big Ten Tournament MVP for the second consecutive year and helped the Nittany Lions to back-to-back conference titles. Amy ended the year with 24 goals and 12 assists for 60 points. In her career as a Lion, the 2011 Capitol One At-Large Academic All-American Third Team honoree has recorded 76 goals and 24 assists for 176 points with 16 game-winning goals, five of which were scored in the 2012 season. Amy ranks third in career goals and career points, while sitting 10th in single season goals and eighth in single season points.
Brown (West Valley City, Utah), majoring in Crime, Law and Justice, posted near-perfect 3.97 grade point average this year. Brown entered the 2013 NCAA Wrestling Championship as the Big Ten Champion at 174 and the No. 2 seed overall. He went 4-1 and advanced to the National Finals to end the year as National Runner-Up and an All-American.
Brown was the 2013 Big Ten Champion at 174 and ended his year with a 29-5 mark with eight pins, two technical falls and seven major decisions. He has a 56-7 career record. Brown was presented with the prestigious Elite 89 Award after the championship finals at the 2013 NCAA Wrestling Championships on Saturday, March 23, in Des Moines, Iowa, as Penn State won its third straight NCAA team title. He received that award for being the most out-standing student-athlete competing at the 2013 Championships with the highest GPA at the event. Brown was a first team All-Big Ten selection and a first team Academic All-Big Ten honoree.
Tatem Coffey |
A Toms River, N.J., native, Coffey helped lead the seventh-ranked women's lacrosse team to its second straight NCAA quarterfinal appearance and the program's most wins (14) since the 1999 season. The midfielder finished the 2013 campaign ranked third on the team in assists (11), fourth in points (39), draw controls (33) and ground balls (26) and tied for fourth in caused turnovers (17).
The communications major, who earned a 4.0 grade-point average, set career highs in both assists and ground balls, while becoming one of five Nittany Lions to record double-digit totals in ground balls, draw controls and caused turnovers. The sophomore added 28 goals and was one of two student-athletes to record at least one point in each of Penn State's 21 games.
A psychology major with a 3.97 GPA, Shishkoff (Franklin, Mass.) was the Ellen Perry Academic Achievement Award winner, which is presented to the female swimmer that has attained the highest degree of academic achievement at Penn State. The junior is a two-time College Swimming Coaches Association of America Scholar All-American selection and was the team's top performer in the 1,000 freestyle and 400 IM during the 2012-13 season.
Shishkoff swam in eight of the team's nine meets and competed at both the Big Ten Championships and NCAA Championships, swimming ten different events and contributing to a school record effort on the 800 freestyle relay team. She set career-bests in nine of the ten events she swam during the season, including the team's top mark of 9:55.72 in the 1,000 free and 4:09.92 in the 400 IM. She boasted 18 NCAA B Cut times during the season and swam the 200 butterfly, 200 IM and 400 IM at the NCAA Championships. She finished 18th in the 400 IM at the NCAA Championships, while also helping the 800 freestyle relay team to a 20th place showing.
The Capital One Academic All-District® At-Large team pool includes; women's bowling, women's crew, men's and women's fencing, women's field hockey, men's and women's golf, men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's ice hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's rifle, men's and women's skiing, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, men's volleyball, men's and women's water polo and men's wrestling.
The Academic All-District® teams are divided into eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada. The Capital One Academic All-District® At-Large selections include teams for NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III participants, while the College Division team combines NAIA, Canadian and two-year schools.
--NITTANY LIONS--