June 11, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team's Matt Brown (West Valley City, Utah) has been named the 2015 CoSIDA Men's At-Large Academic All-American of the Year. Also a first team CoSIDA Academic All-American for the second time, the honor is the latest for the Lion senior, who continues to dominate the nation's post-season academic awards. Brown is now one of the finalists for the NCAA's all-sport Academic All-American of the Year.
Brown, the 2015 NCAA Champion at 174 pounds, earned the honor for the third straight year, adding another national accolade to his quickly growing list of post-season honors. Brown, a criminology and international studies major, was also recently honored with a prestigious NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship and was Penn State's male recipient of this year's Big Ten Post-Graduate Scholarship. He was one of four Nittany Lion wrestlers to earn first team NWCA National All-Academic laurels as well (the third time he has been honored as such).
He became Penn State's 24th three-time All-American in St. Louis this past March. Brown posted a 29-3 record this past season. He capped off his career with a 5-0 run through the NCAA Championships to claim his first individual crown and leaves Penn State with a 118-16 career record, 12th all-time in wins and 11th all-time in pins with 30. He was also recently named Penn State's McCoy Award winner. Brown was also a 2013 First Team CoSIDA Academic All-American. The 2013 Elite 89 Award Winner as the nation's top wrestling student-athlete, he was a three-time First Team Academic All-Big Ten honoree as well.
Brown is the second Penn State wrestler to have won the honor. Jim Martin earned the award twice, in 1988 and 1989, and was named the all sport Academic All-American of the year each season as well. Women's volleyball player Katie Slay won the women's volleyball CoSIDA Academic All-American of the year in 2013, the last time a Penn Stater brought home an overall national award from CoSIDA.
Brown and Nittany Lion field hockey player Laura Gebhart (who was a first team Academic All-American as well for the women's at-large team) are Penn State's 187th and 188th CoSIDA Academic All-Americans. Penn State ranks third among all Division I institutions in all-time Academic All-Americans. The men's at-large team is chosen from candidates from 12 different sports, by far the largest in the Academic All-America program. The teams included on the men's side are wrestling, fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming, tennis, volleyball and water polo.