NOTRE DAME, Indiana, June 12. STANFORD's Ben Wildman-Tobriner (University Division) and Missouri-Rolla's Bill Gaul (College Division) have been named the Men's ESPN The Magazine Academic At-Large All-Americans of the Year by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
The Men's At-Large program for the Academic All-America program includes the sports of fencing, golf, gymnastics, hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, tennis, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.
Wildman-Tobriner, a native of San Francisco, Calif., was selected as the Academic All-America of the Year in the University Division. A two-time Academic All-America selection after earning a spot on last year's first team, the 2007 Pac-10 Swimmer of the Year possesses a 3.68 GPA in biomechanical engineering and set the American record in the 50 freestyle (18.87) at the 2007 NCAA Championship. He won seven Pac-10 titles in this year and also captured two gold medals (50 free, 4×100 free relay) at the 2007 FINA World Championships.
Gaul, a native of West Des Moines, Iowa, is a repeat selection as the Academic All-America of the Year in the College Division, having also claimed the honor in 2006. A three-time Academic All-America pick, he is an 11-time All-America swimmer for the Miners, earning his latest accolade in the 200-yard medley at the 2007 NCAA Division II Championships. In the classroom, Gaul has posted a perfect 4.00 GPA as a Chemical Engineering major and is also the recipient of an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship.
Other swimmers and divers on the University Division Academic All-America first team include Alabama's Vlad Polyakov and Ohio State's Kellen Harkness. On the second team, Georgia Tech's Ofer Finkler, East Carolina's Geoff Handsfield and Alabama's Apostolis Tsagkarakis earned spots as swimmers. The third team hosted more swimmers: Notre Dame's Ted Brown, Minnesota's Igor Cerensek, Florida's Luca De Matteis, Connecticut's Tristan Jones and Florida's Kevin Nead.
Joining Gaul on the College Division Academic All-America first team as swimmers were Rensselaer's Gregory Derevianko, Case Western Reserve's John Erickson and Olivet's Dustin Meisner.
The second team College Division squad hosted swimmers Seattle University's Christopher Coley, Redlands' Trevor Harp and Emory standouts Tim Newton and Andrew Roos.
Missouri-Rolla's Andy Shelley made the third team as a swimmer.
The Academic All-America program annually honors more than 1600 student-athletes who have succeeded at the highest level on the playing field and in the classroom. Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA (the College Sports Information Directors of America), a 2,000-member organization consisting of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.
To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.
Special thanks to CoSIDA for contributing to this report.