College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-America Team

Related links
• CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame
• 2019 CoSIDA Convention Home Page | Register

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Hosted by ESPN's Rece Davis
Monday, June 10: Orlando World Center Marriott, Orlando, Florida
5:30 – 7:00 PM
Sago Ballroom
Ceremony open to all CoSIDA and NACDA convention attendees, free of charge.
 

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Google Cloud Academic All-America® Hall of Fame Class of 2019 Announced

The four-member class will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in ceremonies on Monday, June 10 during the 2019 CoSIDA Convention at the Orlando World Center Marriott

by Barb Kowal, CoSIDA Director of Professional Development and External Affairs

Four highly distinguished professionals, all outstanding collegiate scholar-athletes representing a total of six sports, have been announced as the newest members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Google Cloud Academic All-America® Hall of Fame.

Created in 1988, the Academic All-America® Hall of Fame recognizes former Academic All-Americas who received a college degree at least 10 years ago, have achieved lifetime success in their professional careers, and are committed to philanthropic causes.

The 2019 inductees into the Google Cloud Academic All-America® Hall of Fame are:

• Willie Bloomquist, a First Team All-America shortstop and 1999 Pac-10 Conference Baseball Player of the Year at Arizona State University who went onto a 14-year Major League Baseball career playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Seattle Mariners, Kansas City Royals and Cincinnati Reds and is now in the front office for the Arizona Diamondbacks, serving as Special Assistant to D-backs President & CEO Derrick Hall.
• Louise Jandura, noted engineer in the NASA Mars Exploration Program and the Mars 2020 Sampling and Caching Subsystem Chief Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA who leads a team of 120 to design and build the sampling and caching system for the Mars 2020 Rover, was a three-sport athlete in field hockey, basketball and softball for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is MIT's only four-time Academic All-America honoree;
• Nicole Aunapu Mann, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps, one of the most decorated women's soccer players in Patriot League history as a four-time First Team All-League selection and the conference's two-time defensive player at the U.S. Naval Academy who has gone onto an illustrious career in the United State Marine Corps, flying combat missions in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and who currently is a NASA astronaut, training for the first crewed flight of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft;
• Greg Meredith, a record-setting All-America ice hockey standout, Rhodes Scholar semifinalist and NCAA Silver Anniversary Award recipient who starred for the University of Notre Dame prior to playing for the Calgary Flames in the NHL and who has built a distinguished professional career in investment management with commitment to philanthropic causes and community involvement around education, domestic violence issues, and support for persons with intellectual disabilities.

 

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Willie Bloomquist
Arizona State University Class of 2001
Baseball

A standout All-America infielder on the baseball diamond for Arizona State during his three-year career, Bloomquist went on to play professional baseball for 14 seasons. He played in more than 1000 Major League Baseball (MLB) games as a standout utility player for the Seattle Mariners (2002-08), Kansas City Royals (2009-10), Cincinnati Reds (2010) and Arizona Diamondbacks (2011-13) and again for Seattle (2014-15), primarily an outfielder, shortstop and third baseman. Aside from catcher and pitcher, he played every position during his baseball career. He announced his retirement from the MLB in March of 2016 - in an entertaining Twitter video. He then joined the Arizona D-backs front office two months later.   

Bloomquist currently serves as special assistant to the Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall.

In 1996, he was drafted in the eighth round by the Seattle Mariners out of South Kitsap High School in Port Orchard, Wash., yet the heavily-recruited standout decided to go to college.

And what a decision that turned out to be, as Bloomquist was a three-year starter and All-America standout for the Sun Devils (1997-99) as a freshman, sophomore and junior. 
 

Bloomquist capped his three-year ASU career with First-Team All-America honors at shortstop by Baseball America and the American Baseball Coaches Association in 1999, the same season he was named Pac-10 Player of the Year. His sophomore season, Bloomquist claimed Second Team All-America honors from the NCBWA and ABCA and third-team honors from Baseball America and The Sporting News. He was named to the 1997 Freshman All-America Team by Collegiate Baseball.

He is the only player in ASU Baseball history to record 100 hits in consecutive seasons (1998-99). He finished with a career batting average of .394 with 256 hits, 42 doubles, 22 triples, 15 home runs and 176 RBI, and ranks third in school history with that career .394 batting average. In the Sun Devil record books, Bloomquist also ranks third in triples, fourth with 216 runs scored, tied for fourth with 72 stolen bases and tied for 10th with 176 RBI.

After earning CoSIDA Academic All-America honors in 1999 as a junior, Bloomquist was drafted by the Mariners again in June 1999, this time in the third round. He left ASU after his junior season, signing with the Mariners, but during his offseasons in 2000 and '01, he went back to finish his ASU degree in business management, graduating with a 3.35 GPA.

One of his top MLB seasons took place in 2011 when he was with the Diamondbacks. Bloomquist played in 97 games, hitting .266 with 20 stolen bases. That season, the D-backs won the National League West pennant and in five games against the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Division Series, Bloomquist posted a .318 average and stole three bases.

In his MLB career, Bloomquist hit .269 with 778 hits, 110 doubles, 23 triples, 18 home runs, 225 RBI and 133 stolen bases in 1,055 career games. He compiled a .977 fielding percentage, playing outfield (339 games), shortstop (305 games), third base (142), second base (141) and first base (47).

In 2013, he played in the World Baseball Classic and that same year, was inducted into the Arizona State Sport Hall of Fame.

A fan favorite for his hustle style of play and civic work, Bloomquist has long been involved in the communities in which he played. He was the D-backs' 2012 Roberto Clemente Award nominee for his efforts with Phoenix Children's Hospital where he launched "The Abe and Max Fund" at Phoenix Children's Hospital, which is designed to raise money to buy electronics and games for Phoenix Children's Hospital. Throughout his tenure, he was involved in volunteering at the Diamonback's Winter Classic Holiday parties; hosted Phoenix Children's Hospital patients for VIP days at the ballpark; visited families with babies at the nursery intensive care unit (NyICU) at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center; and made additional hospital visits, aimed at supporting the efforts of the March of Dimes.

Additionally, Bloomquist was named the Mariners Unsung Hero in 2005 and was the 2012 recipient of the Heart & Hustle Award, given to one member from each MLB club that demonstrates a passion for the game of baseball and best embodies the values, spirit and traditions of the game.
 

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Louise Jandura 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Class of 1984
Field Hockey / Basketball / Softball

Recognized with numerous accolades and honors throughout her career with NASA, Jandura is an engineering leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the Mars 2020 mission. She serves as the Sampling and Caching Subsystem Chief Engineer for the Mars venture. Jandura joined JPL, located in Pasadena, California, following graduate school, and has spent her entire professional career - nearly 30 years - working at JPL to deliver mechanisms, robotics and scientific hardware to many space flight projects including the Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, and the Genesis and Aquarius missions.

Currently, she leads a team of 120 engineers who are designing and building the sampling and caching system for the Mars 2020 rover. The goal is for this sampling system to acquire scientific samples of soil and rock from Mars, package those samples, and leave them on the surface of Mars for a future mission for retrieval and transport back to Earth.

A 1984 graduate of MIT with an undergraduate degree in Course 2 (mechanical engineering) and a 4.7 grade point average (on MIT's 5.0 scale), Jandura was a three-sport scholar-athlete as a member of the varsity field hockey, basketball, and softball teams. She is MIT's only four-time Academic All-America honoree, earning First Team All-America honors twice in softball (1983, 1984) as a junior and senior and adding to her senior year accolades by claiming 1984 Second Team All-America honors on the basketball and at-large (for field hockey) AAA teams. 
 

She was team MVP and captain of the field hockey and softball teams, and led the MIT softball squad to the Massachusetts AIAW championship as a sophomore and to the Eastern AIAW Division III Tournament as a junior. In 1983, she was selected to compete in the 1983 U.S. Hockey Festival and the New England Field Hockey Coaches Association Tournament.

Among her numerous MIT academic accolades, Jandura was inducted in both Tau Beta Pi and Pi Tau Sigma, the engineering and mechanical engineering honor societies, respectively. In 1984 as a senior, Jandura won the Malcom G. Kispert Award as the MIT Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was a MIT Alumnae Senior Academic Award Honorable Mention recipient.

Following her 1984 graduation, Jandura stayed at MIT to receive her masters in mechanical engineering in 1986. Along with two graduate classmates, she was granted a patent in 1995 for design work on an Automatic Dispenser for Dry Ingredients, for work they accomplished during their postgraduate years.

Since 2010, she has served as a member of the Organizing Committee for the Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium and was co-host chair of the 41st Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium in May 2012.

The highly-honored Jandura won the 2013 Individual NASA Honor Award Medal for Exceptional Engineering Achievement for her work on the sampling system for Mars Curiosity rover, earned the 2015 JPL People Leadership Award, and received the 2003 Individual NASA Honor Award for Exceptional Achievement for her work on the Genesis Payload Mechanisms. She also has been part of 11 NASA Group Achievement Awards for her work on her numerous space missions projects and scientific developments.

Jandura does classroom outreach as a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer, educating young children about the Mars missions and the space program. She also has served as a robotics mentor at The Archer School for Girls, volunteers to serve the homeless in Pasadena (Calif.) and works with USA Field Hockey as an Umpire Manager training other umpires.
   

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LtCol Nicole Aunapu Mann
United State Naval Academy Class of 1999
Soccer

A decorated soccer standout at Navy, Mann, a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, is now an active astronaut and test pilot. She served as a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet jets and deployed twice aboard aircraft carriers in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In her illustrious career to date, Mann has flown over 2,500 flight hours in 25 types of aircraft, has 200-plus carrier landings, and has flown 47 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2013, Mann was selected as one of the eight members of NASA Astronaut Group 21. At the time of her selection as an astronaut candidate, she was Joint Mission Planning System Expeditionary Integrated Product Team Lead. After finishing her initial training, she worked on the development of NASA's new Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System and the Exploration Ground Systems.

In August 2018, Mann was assigned to the first test flight of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, and she and her fellow crew members are working closely with Boeing to develop their new spacecraft systems. These systems will provide roundtrip crew transportation services to the International Space Station and, along with SpaceX's CrewDragon, return the ability to launch humans into space from United States soil.
 

The California native graduated in 1999 from the U.S. Navy Academy with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering. She was a Trident Scholar and a Distinguished Graduate.

Mann starred on the Navy soccer team from 1995-1998, helping build the program into a perennial power with the first four winning seasons in a streak that would last 21 years. A starter in 74 of her 75 appearances, she guided Navy to its first postseason berth in 1996 and, as a senior in 1998, captained Navy through an undefeated Patriot League campaign for the program's first conference title.

As one of the top players in Patriot League history, Mann earned United Soccer Coaches All-Region honors and First Team All-Patriot League honor all four years and was named Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons. Mann was named to the Patriot League All-Decade Women's Soccer Team in 2000 and to the Patriot League Women's Soccer 25th Anniversary Team in 2015.

Mann's many athletic accomplishments were accompanied by an array of academic awards. As a junior and senior in 1997 and 1998, she twice received CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team honors as she graduated with her mechanical engineering degree and a 3.8 grade point average. The 1998 Patriot League Women's Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Mann was named the Patriot League's first-ever Female Scholar Athlete of the Year in 1998-99. Additionally as a senior, she received First Scholar All-American honors by the United Soccer Coaches organization and was the NCAA Woman of the Year candidate from the state of Maryland. The Naval Academy also bestowed Mann, a Trident Scholar, with the Vice Admiral Lawrence Sword for Women. She was ranked fourth in the Naval Academy's Military Order of Merit and ninth in the Overall Order of Merit for the Class of 1999.

After commissioning in the United States Navy, Mann attended graduate school at Stanford where she obtained a master's of science degree in mechanical engineering, specializing in fluid mechanics. Upon completing graduate school, Mann attended The Basic School (Marine Corps officer training in Quantico, Virginia) and after flight training, was awarded her Naval Aviator wings in 2002. She was the Honor Graduate in her US Naval Test Pilot School class.

During her military career, she has received two Air Medals, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals and two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals. Mann was recipient of the NASA 2015 Stephen D. Thorne Safety Award.

In December of 2017, the United Soccer Coaches organization recognized her as Jerry Yeagley Award for Exceptional Personal Achievement honoree, an award presented annually to a former college men's or women's soccer player who has demonstrated exceptional personal achievement and extraordinary accomplishment that transcends normal expectation and who was an example and inspiration to his/her teammates and university.
 

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Greg Meredith
Notre Dame Class of 1980
Ice Hockey (Honorary Inductee)

One of the most accomplished ice hockey players in Notre Dame history, former NHL and Stanley Cup player Greg Meredith has parlayed his collegiate scholar-athlete successes and achievements into a prestigious professional career in finance and investments.

Currently, he founded, and now serves as Managing Member of Proctor Capital LLC, a private investment and strategic advisory firm located in New York City and also serves as Senior Managing Director, Product and Strategy, for financial technology firm LoanStreet.   

At Notre Dame, Meredith was a four-year Monogram Winner (letterwinner), a two-year captain, the team's Rookie of the Year as a freshman and earned First Team All-Conference and All-America honors as a senior. In the Notre Dame ice hockey record books, Meredith, who played from 1976-80, ranks first in multiple categories – for career goals (104), career power-play goals (43), and single season power-play goals (23 recorded in his senior season). He finished his career with 192 points (104 goals, 88 assists) to rank seventh in all-time career points. He also is tied for third in single season game-winning goals (six, 1978-79), fourth in single season points (71, 40 goals and 31assists as a senior), tied for sixth in career hat tricks (five) and tied for eighth in career game-winning goals (10).

Among his Notre Dame academic accolades, Meredith was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist as a senior. As a finance major, he carried a 3.82 grade point average at the time of his graduation as a Dean's List student. As a senior, he earned the Wall Street Journal Award as most promising senior finance student and went on to claim a prestigious 1980 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
 

He also was awarded the Ed McGauley Outstanding Senior Award, the Byron V. Kanaley Leadership Award as a Notre Dame senior.

During his sophomore season, Meredith was drafted by the National Hockey League's Atlanta Flames in the sixth round. After graduation, he went on to compete for the Flames, which had moved to Calgary by that time.

Meredith was a key contributor in the 1983 Stanley Cup playoffs with three goals and an assist in five games. Meredith played one more year of professional hockey with the Colorado Flames of the CHL in 1983-84 before retiring to enroll in graduate school. He played in 38 NHL regular season games, scoring six goals and ten points.  

He then earned his MBA at Harvard (where he also was an assistant men's ice hockey coach). From there, Meredith advanced through the financial services and investment management ranks, serving as a senior partner, business leader or chief executive officer with several companies and business partnerships during his career, including Proctor NBF Capital Partners, Salomon Brothers, Inc., Nationsbanc Capital Markets, Inc., Fenway Partners, Inc. and HSBC Capital.

His civic and charitable work is admirable. He and his wife Audrey formed the Meredith Family Foundation in 1997, which contributes to programs such as the LOGAN Center, which provides services to individuals with intellectual disabilities, the St. Joseph's County Special Olympics, and Camp Millhouse, a summer camp for children with significant intellectual disabilities. In addition, the organization funds educational initiatives including the Paul and Dianne Meredith scholarships at Notre Dame. With his wife, Audrey, they have broadened the mission of the Foundation through work and contributions to the Center Against Domestic Violence in New York.

Meredith also coached with the St. David's Hockey program for boys and girls between nine and 11 years of age and has been involved with the Convent of the Sacred Heart School in New York on numerous committees and as a Board of Trustees member.

In January 2005, Meredith was recognized by the NCAA with an elite NCAA Silver Anniversary Award, an award recognizing former student-athletes who have distinguished themselves since completing their college athletics careers 25 years ago. In 2012, he received the Harvey G. Foster award from Notre Dame which recognizes "distinct involvement in civic and university initiatives, particularly those supporting children, young adults and the disabled."