DI Men’s Track & Field Scholar Athletes of the Year & All-Academic Individuals Announced

NEW ORLEANS – Edward Cheserek of Oregon, Luca Wieland of Minnesota and Sam Mattis of Penn have been named the male Scholar Athletes of the Year in NCAA Division I for the 2014-15 track & field season by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), the association announced Friday.

Combining their accomplishments in the classroom and in competition during the recently completed academic year, those four men stood out among a group of 529 men who earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors. The full breakdown of All-Academic selections can be found below.

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Scholar Athletes of the Year were selected as the highest-finishing performers at the NCAA Indoor & Outdoor Championships who also achieved USTFCCCA All-Academic Individual status. Those who earned multiple individual championship titles ranked higher in the tie-breaking process, and cumulative GPA is weighed as the final tiebreaker to establish a winner.

Separate awards are given to track athletes and field athletes for the indoor and outdoor seasons, resulting in four categories.

Cheserek, a sophomore general social science major with a 3.29 cumulative GPA, swept both the indoor and outdoor track awards, bringing his career total Scholar Athlete awards to four including cross country. Indoors, he won the mile, ran the anchor leg of the winning distance medley relay, and finished runner-up at 3000 meters. Outdoors, he swept both the 5000- and 10,000-meter national titles at the NCAA Championships.

Wieland, a sophomore international business and marketing major with a 3.586 cumulative GPA, was named the indoor field award winner for his first Scholar Athlete of the Year honor. The native of Saarbrucken, Germany, emerged victorious in the tightest heptathlon in NCAA Championships history, scoring 6070 points to beat Garrett Scantling by just two points. He is the first man from Minnesota to earn Scholar Athlete of the Year honors in track & field.

Mattis, a junior finance major with a 3.43 cumulative GPA, was named the outdoor field winner for his first career Scholar Athlete honor. Like Wieland in the heptathlon, the East Brunswick, New Jersey, native won his national discus title in dramatic fashion. It took a final-attempt heave of 205-0 (62.48m) to overtake Tennessee’s Tavis Bailey for the win after trailing by just two centimeters for much of the competition.

He is the first man from Penn and the first from the Ivy League to earn Scholar Athlete of the Year honors in track & field.

All-Academic Individuals

Nebraska Tops All-Academic Individuals List with 15 Honorees; Big Ten is the Top Conference

Including the Scholar Athletes of the Year, a total of 529 men from 165 institutions earned USTFCCCA All-Academic honors for their combined academic and athletic accomplishments.

To qualify for the USTFCCCA All-Academic Track and Field Team, the student-athlete must have compiled a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 and have met at least one of the following athletic standards:

• For the indoor season, a student-athlete must have finished the regular season ranked in the national top 96 in an individual event or ranked in the national top 48 (collective listing) in a relay event on the official NCAA POP list provided by TFRRS.org
• For the outdoor season, a student-athlete must have participated in any round of the NCAA Division I Championships (including preliminary rounds).

Nebraska led all teams with 15 honorees,marking the second consecutive year atop this list. Colorado State earned the second-most awards with 11, followed by 10 apiece from Illinois and Georgia.

Headlined by Nebraska, the Big Ten topped the list of conferences with 68 honorees, followed by the SEC with 49 and the Pac-12 with 43.

Sixteen different men recorded a cumulative GPA of 4.0.

The full list of All-Academic selections is provided below, arranged alphabetically by team name.

2015 USTFCCCA All-Academic Individuals
NCAA Division I Men’s Track & Field