2015 Academic Awards

Daniel Del Gallo of Southern Maine is the 2015 Elite 89 Award winner

2015 NWCA Scholar All-Americans | 2015 NWCA Top 30 Scholar Teams

To qualify as an NWCA Scholar All-American, a wrestler must be in at least his second semester at a school. His GPA must be at least 3.2 and he must meet at least one of the following wrestling criteria:

1. 2015 NCAA Qualifier with a record above .500
2. Regional top 6 AND greater than .500 record AND competed in 50% or greater of a teams’s schedule
3. Record above 0.670 AND competed in 50% or greater of a team’s schedule

The team GPA is calculated as an average of the top ten students on each team. At least six of the ten athletes chosen must have competed in the NCAA qualifying tournament, and the other athletes must have competed in at least 50% of the team’s scheduled contests.

In order to be eligible for any academic awards, the school and coach must be active NWCA members in good standing with current membership dues.

Lastly, the NCAA also presents the Elite 89 Award at each of its 89 championship events. The Elite 89 Award is given to the athlete with the highest GPA competing at the final championship site in each sport. The 2015 Elite 89 Award winner for Division III Wrestling is sophomore Daniel Del Gallo of the University of Southern Maine.


 

NWCA Announces All-Academic Teams and Individuals for 2014-2015 Season
by Jon McGovern (President of the NCAA III National Wrestling Coaches Association)
March 22nd, 2015

Hershey, PA – The National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) has announced its annual NCAA Division III All-Academic Top 30 Teams and Individual Academic All-Americans for the 2014-2015 wrestling season during the NCAA III Championships in Hershey PA.

Kings College was honored as the nation’s top academic wrestling program with a 3.59 team GPA. The runner-up in this year’s team competition was Olivet College. Following their top team finish last season with a 3.64 team GPA and #1 NWCA Academic Scholar Team finish in 2014, Olivet Head Coach Brandon Brissette’s squad once again delivered a strong performance with a 3.58 team GPA in 2015.

Rounding out the Top 10 Academic Scholar teams was the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (3.54) in 3rd, Alma College (3.52) in 4th, Wabash College (3.51) in 5th, Concordia-Moorhead (3.5) in 6th, University of Chicago (3.49) in 7th, Norwich University (3.48) in 8th, Luther College (3.46) in 9th, and St. Johns (3.45) in 10th.

There were 159 NCAA III Wrestlers that earned NWCA Academic All-American honors. Alma College had the most individuals on the list as eight of their student-athletes earned NWCA Academic All-American honors. Wabash College and UW Whitewater finished second in totals with 6 student-athletes each earning NWCA Academic Scholar honors.

The student-athletes earning the highest GPA were Reed Van Anrooy from Luther College with a 4.0 GPA majoring in Biology and Daniel Del Gallo from Southern Maine with a 4.0 GPA majoring in Philosophy and Sociology. Cody Lovejoy from Ohio Northern finished with the 3rd highest GPA with a 3.99 GPA in Pharmacy. Dan Del Gallo of Southern Maine was also selected as the 2015 Elite 89 Award winner.

“The NWCA All-Academic Team and Individual Team is one of the best acknowledgements that we can give to our coaches and athletes at the end of a physically grueling season” said NWCA Executive Director Mike Moyer. “These young men have proved that they are not only talented competitors but are leaders in the classroom as well. The NWCA Board of Directors and staff look forward to watching these student-athletes continue their success at the collegiate level and eventually as the leaders of the future once they earn their college degrees.

For a list of the Top 30 teams, click here: https://www.d3wrestle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-NWCA-Top-30-Scholar-Teams.pdf

For a list of the individual Academic All-Americans click here: https://www.d3wrestle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2015-NWCA-Scholar-All-Americans.pdf

About the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA)
The National Wrestling Coaches Association, established in 1928, is a non-profit organization for the advancement of all levels of the sport of wrestling with primary emphasis on developing coaches who work in academic environments. The membership embraces all people interested in amateur wrestling. The three core competencies of the NWCA are: coaching development, student-athlete welfare, and promotion of wrestling.