2008 09 NWCA Division I All Academic Team

By Tammy Tedesco

The National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) has announced its annual Division I All-Academic Top 30 Team and the NWCA Individual All-Academic wrestling team for the 2008-09 season.

For the second straight year, American University took home top team honors while five NCAA Division I Champions highlighted the individual team.

Mark Cody’s American University Eagles led the Division I teams with GPA of 3.2839 after tying with Duke University in 2008. American was closely followed by Harvard University which had their highest team finish under head coach Jay Weiss. Rounding out the top five teams are Stanford University, Duke University, and Davidson College.

All eleven conferences were represented in the top 30 teams with the EIWA leading the way with six teams.

For teams to be eligible for consideration, the team GPA is comprised of 12 student athletes, including the 10 wrestlers that were the entries in the NCAA tournament conference qualifier. If teams had less than 10 entries for their respective qualifier, they may fill those spots with wrestlers that competed in at least one varsity dual during the season.

“We are finding that year in and year out, coaches strive to have their team’s listed as an All-Academic Team. This is another measure of success for these programs,” said Executive Director Mike Moyer. “There is so much more to wrestling than what is done on the mat and we see just one part of that here with the All-Academic Team.”

The 2008-09 All-Academic individual team is highlighted by a total of 51 NCAA Qualifiers, 17 NCAA All-Americans, 8 NCAA Finalist and 5 NCAA Champions. In total 73 individuals representing 45 schools are being honored this year on the All-Academic Team.

The five NCAA Champions earning a spot on the individual team are: Jarrod King of Edinboro University (3.78) a Health and Physical Education –Human Performance major, Stephen Luke of the University of Michigan (3.35) a Biology major, Jake Herbert of Northwestern University (3.179) a Communication Major, Fraklin Gomez of Michigan State (3.098) majoring in Human Resources, and J. Jaggers of the Ohio State University (3.02) in Communications.

Sitting at the top of the All-Academic Team is NCAA Qualifier Nicholas Amuchastegui of Stanford University who holds a 3.928 in Mechanical Engineering.

Rounding out the top five individuals were Liberty’s Christian Smith (3.92), Tucker Lane (3.919) of Nebraska, Jeffrey Newby (3.82) of Utah Valley, and Jarrod King (3.78) of Edinboro University.

Individually, wrestlers must have at least a 3.2 cumulative GPA, been an NCAA qualifier or won 60 percent of his total schedule – and must have competed in at least 60 percent of said schedule. The other way to qualify for the All-Academic team is have a 3.0 cumulative and been an NCAA All-American.

“The student-athletes on this All-Academic Team exemplify what we are looking for in the sport of wrestling. You see teams and individuals from the largest institutions that sponsor wrestling to the smaller colleges listed.  There is diversity here that you do not always get to see when it comes to compiling these type of teams,” said Jim Beichner NWCA President.

Utah Valley State led all schools with four wrestlers earning All-Academic accolades followed by The United State Military Academy (ARMY), Old Dominion University, and Northwestern University with three individuals named to the All-Academic Team.

“As a coaches association, we look forward to recognizing the accomplishments of our coaches and wrestlers each year.  This is just another way to showcase our sport’s close alignment with educational values,” said Moyer.

2008‐09 NWCA All‐Academic Division I Team

2009 NWCA All-Academic Team