May 17, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.ââ'¬" Three Penn State student-athletes have been selected to the Collegiate Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District At-Large First Team for District 2.
Women's ice hockey player Laura Bowman (Minnetonka, Minn.) and wrestling individual national champions Nico Megaludis (Murrysville, Pa.) and Zain Retherford (Benton, Pa.) are Penn State's honorees. All three standouts advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America ballot where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be announced in June.
Bowman, a rising senior, is the first member of the Penn State women's hockey team to receive CoSIDA Academic All-America accolades in the program's four years as a varsity sport. An outstanding student, she boasts a 3.95 grade-point average (GPA) as a biochemistry and molecular biology major. Bowman also is a Schreyer Honors College scholar.
Laura BowmanDuring the 2015-16 season, Bowman netted 25 points on a program-best 17 goals, and added eight assists. During her junior season, she scored three game-winning goals, tied a program record with six power play goals, and scored in four-straight games twice. Bowman, the team's 2016-17 captain, owns program career records with 43 goals and 11 power play goals.
Megaludis graduated earlier this month with a degree in finance and a 3.51 GPA. The 2016 NCAA Champion at 125 pounds, he helped Penn State capture its fifth Big Ten and NCAA team titles in the last six years. He became Penn State's ninth four-time All-American with a 5-0 run to win the NCAA title in Madison Square Garden in March. Megaludis went 32-3 with five pins, four tech falls and ten majors this year and ended his career with 119 victories, 11th on Penn State's all-time wins list.
Megaludis was a 2016 NWCA First Team All-Academic honoree, the third time he was a first team national all-academic winner from the National Wrestling Coaches Association. He also was a multiple first team Academic All-Big Ten honoree and the male recipient of Penn State's Ernest B. McCoy Award for 2015-16.
Zain RetherfordA rising junior, 149-pound National Champion Retherford is a finance major as well and sports a 3.72 grade point average. Retherford ended a perfect season with a 5-0 run through NCAAs, including a major, a technical fall and three pins. He ended his sophomore year as a two-time All-American and NCAA Champion, with a 33-0 overall record, 67-3 for his career. He had 15 pins this season alone, tied for seventh on Penn State's all-time single season falls list. Retherford was the 2016 Big Ten Wrestler of the Year and was named the 2016 NCAA Most Dominant Wrestler of the Year.
A 2016 NWCA First Team All-Academic honoree, Retherford was the 2016 Big Ten Champion. He helped Penn State to its fifth Big Ten and NCAA team titles in the past six years as he rolled to his second All-America honor in two years of competition. Like Megaludis, Retherford was a first team Academic All-Big Ten selection as well.
Penn State student-athletes have an NCAA Graduation Success Rate of 88 percent and have earned 191 CoSIDA Academic All-America selections, the fourth-highest total among all Division I programs. Earlier this year, women's volleyball sophomore Haleigh Washington and football junior long snapper Tyler Yazujian earned second team CoSIDA Academic All-America honors.
A total of 109 Penn State student-athletes were approved to graduate following the spring semester, tying the school record of 109 set for the 2013 spring semester.