For the second consecutive year, senior swimmer Chris Coley (, ) has earned a spot on the ESPN The Magazine At-Large Academic All-America Second Team, becoming the second student-athlete to be named Academic All-American twice while at the school.
Coley finished his collegiate career with another solid performance at the 2008 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships. He finished second in the 100 butterfly by just 33/100ths of a second with a time of 48.19 seconds, his best time of the year. He was also part of the 400 medley relay quartet that finished second at the national meet in 3:18.80. The 2006 national champion in the 100 butterfly, Coley earned nine All-America honors during his career, the most of any swimmer during the school’s Division II era.
Named the SU Male Student-Athlete of the Year a couple of weeks ago, Coley joins Female Student-Athlete of the Year Ashley Porter as a two-time Academic All-American. Coley and Porter are two of nine Seattle University student-athletes to be named Academic All-America, joining John Kokesh (Baseball ? 1984), Jane Yegge (At-Large ? 1985), Kelly Brewe (Women’s Basketball ? 1985), Tafara Pulse (Women’s Soccer ? 2003), Adam Jensen (Men’s Soccer ? 2006), Hans Esterhuizen (Men’s Soccer ? 2006), and Ana Gutierrez (Women’s Soccer ? 2006).
The Academic All-America Teams program honors 816 male and female student-athletes annually who have succeeded at the highest level on the playing field and in the classroom. Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America; a 2,000-member organization consisted of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.
To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since the program’s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 15,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.