STANFORD, Calif. – After returning to the top 5 last season, Stanford came in fourth on this year's National Wrestling Coaches Association Scholar All-Academic Team list, the organization announced Thursday.
Stanford moved up a spot this year with a 3.4189 GPA. It marked the 11th consecutive season the Cardinal placed in the top 16 in the nation. Drexel topped the list with a 3.6263 team GPA, while American (3.5607) and Harvard (3.5468) came in just ahead of the Cardinal.
Representing Stanford were redshirt seniors
Paul Fox (science, technology and society) and
Mason Pengilly (political science), junior
Gabriel Townsell (political science), redshirt sophomore
Nathan Traxler (computer science) and sophomore
Dominick Mandarino.
Ohio State led the nation with seven individual NWCA Scholar All-Americans, while Lehigh had six. The Cardinal was one of five teams with five selections, joined by Duke, Drexel, Penn State and Purdue.
Fox (157 pounds), who was the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year for wrestling, becomes the fourth four-time NWCA Scholar All-America in program history. Townsell (125 pounds) is being recognized for the third time in his career, while Pengilly (133 pounds) and Traxler (197 pounds) are repeat honorees. Mandarino (157 pounds) earns his first career nod.
Joining Stanford's five honorees from the Pac-12 Conference were Arizona State's Christian Pagdilao and Josh Shields. As a team, Stanford (4
th) was the only Pac-12 member listed in the top 30.
Awarded annually, the NWCA All-Academic Team contains 142 student-athletes and of those, 39 were All-Americans. The team grade-point average was determined using a system that includes 12 student-athletes from each program.
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