NWCA – Division III All-Academic Teams and Individuals Announced

Manheim, Pennsylvania — The National Wrestling Coaches Association released its Top 30 Division III All-Academic teams and the top 189 All-Academic individuals on Tuesday.

Coach Scott Legacy’s Castleton Spartans lead the team standings, with an average grade-point average of 3.667. The second-year program also boasts four individuals on the NWCA Division III All-Academic team. Following Castleton is Top 30-regular Williams College, which checked in second with 3.651, while Stevens Tech with a solid 3.635. Augsburg was fourth with a 3.628 and Washington & Lee rounded out the top five with an average GPA of 3.616.

Individually, Augsburg led all teams with eight wrestlers on the All-Academic Team, followed by Johnson & Wales, Wesleyan and York College (Pa.), who each put six wrestlers on the squad.

Nine different schools had five wrestlers represented: Ithaca, NYU, North Central, Ohio Northern, Stevens Tech, Cortland State, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Wisconsin-La Crosse, and Wabash.

Overall, 67 different institutions were represented, which accounts for over 64 percent of active Division III wrestling programs nationwide.

Nominees must have at least a 3.2 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) for the previous full academic year. Transfers and freshmen are eligible if they’ve been in residence at their current institution beginning in the fall of 2016. On the competition side, wrestlers much be a national qualifier in 2016-17 and have a minimum win percentage of at least .500.

Additionally, wrestlers can also be considered if they placed in the top six at their respective regional tournament, a win percentage of .500 or better and competed in half of the institution’s scheduled competition in NCAA championship events. A wrestler can also be considered if they have a win percentage of .670 or better and competed in half of the institution’s scheduled NCAA events.

“This just continues to show the importance of how athletes in Division III balance their athletic careers and their educational opportunities,” said NWCA Executive Director Mike Moyer. “Division III is the largest in the number of teams at the NCAA level and we know these athletes are competing without athletic scholarships and their experiences on the mat and in the classroom exemplify what it means to compete in Division III and in the sport of wrestling.”

Rounding out the top 10: 6. Milwaukee School of Engineering (3.554), 7. Johns Hopkins (3.549), 8. Case Western Reserve (3.5394), 9. Springfield (3.5206) and 10. Ithaca (3.4969).

“The landscape of Division III really can provide student-athletes with exactly what they want, between a smaller, liberal arts college or a larger state school,” said Moyer. “We’ve seen tremendous academic performances in some of our nation’s finest academic institutions, and many of them exist in Division III. I like to say that college wrestling provides the next generation of our teachers and coaches, but some of these kids are our next generations of doctors, rocket scientists and biochemists.”

Click Here to See the Complete 2017-18 NWCA Division III All-Academic Team