Three America East student-athletes received Capital One Academic All-America honors this week as selected by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
UMBC junior men's swimmer Keilan Freeman earned first-team honors on the men's squad while Binghamton University tennis standout Sven Vloedgraven garnered third-team accolades. University at Albany's Nikki Branchini picked up second-team honors on the women's squad. Additonally two Vermont skiiers, Amy Glen and Caitlin Patterson, were also named to the team.
Branchini, a senior women's lacrosse standout, has a 3.83 GPA in history. Named the America East Co-Player of the Year one year after earning sole Player of the Year honors, Branchini has led the Great Danes to a perfect 18-0 record and a trip to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Championship. She also was named America East's Woman of the Year on Tuesday.
Freeman, a senior swimmer at UMBC, has a 3.98 GPA in mechanical engineering. A two-time America East All-Academic honoree, Freeman also earned Academic All-America status last season, picking up second-team recognition. In the pool, he led UMBC to four straight league titles and was part of the men’s 800-yard freestyle relay that broke the UMBC, America East Championship and Germantown Indoor Swim Center records at the 2011 conference championship.
Vlodegraven, a senior tennis standout at Binghamton, has a 3.83 GPA in biology. The reigning America East Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Vloedgraven is a three-time All-America East selection and a repeat CoSIDA choice. The No. 77 singles player in the nation in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, Vloedgraven earned his third straight America East Player of the Year award and will participate in the NCAA Singles Championship for the second straight year this week.
To be nominated, the student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) for his/her career. No athlete is eligible until he/she has reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at his/her current institution (thus, true freshmen, red-shirt freshmen and ineligible transfers are not eligible). In the cases of transfers, graduate students and junior college graduates, the athlete must have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution to be eligible.
CoSIDA selects Academic All-America teams in 12 programs: football, women's volleyball, men's soccer, women's soccer, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, softball, men's track & field/cross country, women's track & field/cross country, men's at-large and women's at-large. A first team, second team and third team are selected in both the University (Division I and I-AA) and College (Division II, III and NAIA) Divisions. Football consists of just first and second teams.
The sports in the at-large category include: women's bowling, women's crew, men's and women's fencing, women's field hockey, men's and women's golf, men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's ice hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's rifle, men's and women's skiing, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's tennis, men's volleyball, men's and women's water polo and men's wrestling.