2017-18 GOOGLE CLOUD ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICA DIVISION III MEN'S/WOMEN'S AT-LARGE TEAMS (CoSIDA)
MINNEAPOLIS -- Augsburg University student-athletes Sam Bennyhoff (JR, Mound, Minn./Mound-Westonka HS), Nate Flynn (SR, Hastings, Minn./Hastings HS) and Victor Gliva (SO, Farmington, Minn./Farmington HS) were named to the Google Cloud Academic All-America Division III Men's At-Large Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), it was announced on Tuesday.
Flynn, a men's hockey forward, earned Google Cloud Academic All-America honors for the second straight year. He earned first-team honors after being named to the second team in 2016-17. Wrestlers Gliva and Bennyhoff earned Academic All-America honors for the first time, Gliva as a first-team selection and Bennyhoff as a second-team selection. All three earned
Google Cloud Academic All-District honors in May.
The three Augsburg honorees were tied with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the most Academic All-Americans for any school in the men's at-large category, which includes student athletes from 12 men's sports: fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.
Flynn is an accounting and finance major with a 3.98 grade-point average. Flynn earned
All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors for the third straight year in 2017-18. A two-time Academic All-MIAC honoree, Flynn is slated to earn the honor again this summer. He is also a four-time MIAC Athlete of the Week honoree.
A team captain, Flynn earned a reputation as one of the best forwards in the MIAC, standing with a team-best 12 goals and 16 assists for 28 points this season, including three power-play goals and two game-winning goals.
Among MIAC players in overall statistics, Flynn finished tied for third in points, tied for seventh in goals and tied for third in assists.
He recorded a goal or assist in 17 of his 29 games this season, including nine multi-point games. In his 109-game career for the Auggies, he finished with 51 goals and 47 assists for 98 career points. He was a member of Augsburg squads that won the MIAC postseason playoff title each of the last three years, earning a trip to the NCAA Division III national tournament quarterfinals each time. Augsburg finished 19-10-0 overall, 10-6-0 in MIAC play this season.
Gliva is an accounting major with a perfect 4.00 GPA. This season, was named as the recipient of
the NCAA Elite 90 Award as the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average at the NCAA Division III Wrestling National Championships, in addition to earning
National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Scholar All-America honors for the second straight year.
Gliva finished the 2017-18 season with a 29-8 record, qualifying for the NCAA Division III national tournament for the second straight year, after finishing second at the NCAA Division III Upper Midwest Regional. Of his 29 wins, he had nine pins, two technical falls and six major decisions.
A 2017 regional titlist and All-American with an eighth-place finish at 125, Gliva is 61-15 in his two seasons as an Auggie, with 15 pins, six technical falls and 13 major decisions.
Bennyhoff is a physics major with a 3.86 GPA. He has earned
National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Scholar All-America honors each of the past three seasons.
Bennyhoff finished his junior season as the
NCAA Division III national runner-up at 133 pounds, finishing his season at 35-6 with nine pins, seven technical falls and nine major decisions. He won nine straight matches leading up to the national title match. He won titles at three tournaments this season, including the
NCAA Division III Upper Midwest Regional, a regional title he won for the third straight year.
An NCAA national tournament qualifier for the third straight year, Bennyhoff is now 93-22 in his three seasons at Augsburg, with 17 pins, 15 technical falls and 26 major decisions.
Across all sports, Augsburg student-athletes have now been honored 40 times with CoSIDA Academic All-America honors since 1981, including 30 honors since 2000. Among the 13 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schools, Augsburg has had the fourth-most CoSIDA Academic All-Americans all-time.
The
Google Cloud Academic All-America program is administered by the
College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Top student-athletes, who have already earned Google Cloud Academic All-District first-team honors, are eligible for inclusion on the Google Cloud Academic All-America team. Student-athletes must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their current institutions, have a grade-point average above 3.30 (4.0 scale) and have outstanding athletic credentials. The Google Cloud Academic All-America ballot is voted on by a committee of CoSIDA members, along with sports information directors in the various divisions. Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Google Cloud Academic All-America honors on more than 20,000 student-athletes in NCAA Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.
Google Cloud, a cloud computing services program for businesses, recently signed on as the title sponsor for
CoSIDA's Academic All-District/Academic All-America programs. The Division III Google Cloud Academic All-America program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division III national governance structure, to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the Google Cloud Division III Academic All-America teams program.
This is the seventh year of the expanded Google Cloud Academic All-America program, with separate teams comprising NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III participants, along with a College Division team of NAIA, Canadian and two-year schools. First-team Google Cloud Academic All-District members advance to the Google Cloud Academic All-America ballot, voted on by a committee of CoSIDA members.
Augsburg College's All-Time CoSIDA Academic All-Americans:
Nate Flynn, men's ice hockey (men's at-large), 2018 (first team)
Victor Gliva, wrestling (men's at-large), 2018 (first team)
Sam Bennyhoff, wrestling (men's at-large), 2018 (second team)
Christopher Lemke, football, 2017 (first team)
Nate Flynn, men's ice hockey (men's at-large), 2017 (second team)
Mary Cornelius, women's track and field/cross country, 2016 (third team)
Erika Allen, women's ice hockey (women's at-large), 2016 (second team)
Zach Swingen, football, 2015 (first team)
Chris DeVet, football, 2014 (first team)
Zach Swingen, football, 2014 (second team)
Lauren Rice, women's track and field/cross country, 2014 (first team)
Elianna Bier, women's swimming and diving (women's at-large), 2014 (second team)
Chad Thompson, football, 2013 (second team)
Chris DeVet, football, 2013 (second team)
Bri Dorale, softball, 2013 (first team)
Chad Thompson, football, 2012 (first team)
Tony Valek, wrestling (men's at-large), 2012 (first team)
Tony Valek, wrestling (men's at-large), 2011 (first team)
Alex Hildebrandt, men's soccer, 2009 (second team)
Alex Hildebrandt, men's soccer, 2008 (third team)
Nick Manders, men's soccer, 2007 (second team)
Andrew Neumann, football, 2006 (second team)
Ryan Valek, wrestling (men's at-large), 2006 (first team)
Riley Conway, men's track and field/cross country, 2005 (second team)
Mark Matzek, wrestling (men's at-large), 2005 (first team)
Ryan Valek, wrestling (men's at-large), 2005 (third team)
Darren Ginther, baseball, 2005 (first team)
Brent Peroutka, football, 2001 (second team)
Josh Cagle, wrestling (men's at-large), 2000 (first team)
Brian Jones, wrestling (men's at-large), 2000 (second team)
Josh Cagle, wrestling (men's at-large), 1999 (second team)
Jim Peterson, wrestling (men's at-large), 1999 (second team)
Scott Hvistendahl, football, 1998 (second team)
Ted Schultz, football, 1997 (first team)
Scott Hvistendahl, football, 1997 (second team)
Dan Lewandowski, wrestling (men's at-large), 1997 (second team)
Andrea Haight, softball, 1991 (second team)
Karen Sterner, track and field (women's at-large), 1987 (second team)
Karen Sterner, track and field (women's at-large), 1986 (first team)
Paul Elliot, football, 1981 (only one team selected)
(Note: This release includes information taken from Augsburg's CoSIDA Academic All-District release and previous Augsburg Academic All-America news releases.)
