SAN FRANCISCO - STANFORD redshirt senior Nathan Traxler has been named the 2021 Pac-12 Wrestling Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the Conference office announced today. The award, which is presented in each of the 24 sports the Pac-12 sponsors, was established to honor collegiate student-athletes that are standouts both academically and in their sports discipline.

Traxler, a graduate student from St. Charles, Ill., graduated from Stanford in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a cumulative 3.54 grade-point average. The seventh Stanford wrestler to be named the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Traxler is currently pursuing his master’s degree in computer science and will graduate this spring. 

A three-time team captain for Stanford, Traxler has compiled a 74-25 career record as a member of the Cardinal. A three-time NCAA qualifier, he was named a National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Second Team All-American in 2020. In 2019, he was an individual Pac-12 champion at 197 lbs., leading Stanford to its first Pac-12 team championship in program history. He’s also earned Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week on three separate occasions. 

In the classroom, Traxler is a three-time NWCA Scholar All-American (2018, 2019, 2020), a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic First Team honoree (2018, 2019) and a 2020 Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll recipient. 

To complement his studies, Traxler has held two software engineering internships at Apple. In 2019, he worked on a team of integral engineering to build and improve tools that are used to efficiently operate Apple data centers across the world. As a full stack engineer, he worked on the frontend and backend of these tools. In 2020, he contributed to a project working on the apple.com search bar, incorporating AppleTV+ content into search results. 

In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50 percent of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sport’s regular season. The athletics accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in voting for the award.

A Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be named in each of the Pac-12’s 24 sponsored sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, beach volleyball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, men’s rowing, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track & field, women’s track & field, women’s volleyball, and wrestling. The award was first established during the 2007-08 academic year.

ALSO NOMINATED: Jacob Sieder, CSU Bakersfield; Paul Bianchi, Little Rock.