Sandys, Engelhardt selected Capital One Academic All-Americans


Ben Engelhardt

The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) recently announced the recipients of the 2011 Capital One Academic All-America honors with two members of the Arizona State University men’s track and field program earning the national honor for the first time in their careers. Jamie Sandys, a junior decathlete on the track and field team, was selected to the second team while senior distance runner Ben Engelhardt earned a place on the third team after a national vote by CoSIDA members from around the nation. Both men were eligible for the national honor after earning spots on the Capital One Academic All-District VIII First Teams earlier this month.

With their selections, the Sun Devil men’s program continued a streak of four years in a row with at least one Academic All-American and the third year in a row with two honorees each season after both Jason Lewis and Ryan Whiting were selected to teams in 2009 and 2010. The fourth and fifth all-time selections for the men’s program, Sandys’ selection to the second team is the fifth for the men while Engelhardt’s third-team honor is the first for the program. Combined with the women’s program, ASU now has 10 different student-athletes that have been selected as Academic All-Americans with a total of six first-team honors, nine second-team honors and two third-team honors.

Sandys, an Academic All-Pac-10 First Team honoree in both 2010 and 2011, continued to show improvement all season and broke the 7,000-point barrier in the decathlon outdoors by scoring 7,061 points to rank 10th all-time in the event in program history. Before improving his outdoor decathlon score by over 850 points this spring, he competed in the heptathlon indoors and became only the second ASU man to break 5,000 points, bettering his heptathlon personal-best score by 1,155 points. A second-team Academic All-American, Sandys currently holds better than a 4.0 grade point average while pursuing degrees in two majors: anthropology and sociology.

Engelhardt was honored earlier this season as an Academic All-Pac-10 First Team honoree for cross country before recently landing on the Academic All-Pac-10 First Team for track and field, marking the fourth time in his career he was named first team in track and field and seven total first-team honors (including track and field and cross country). A 2010 USTFCCCA All-Academic selection for cross country and individual qualifier to the NCAA Cross Country Championships (51st overall), Engelhardt qualified for the NCAA Championship Preliminary Round meet in Eugene, Ore., this season and competed in the 10,000m run. Engelhardt recently graduated from ASU Magna Cum Laude with two degrees, including a B.S. in Psychology and a B.S. in Biochemistry.

Several members of the Sun Devil program, including current, former and future student-athletes, will head to Eugene, Ore., this weekend to compete in 2011 USATF Outdoor Championships. The senior division will have high stakes as individuals will be not only competing for national titles, but also spots on Team USA’s roster for the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Athletics that will take place in Daegu, Korea, August 27-September 4.

Arizona State’s All-Time Academic All-America Selections:
Men
2011 - Jamie Sandys - Second Team (TF/XC) & Ben Engelhardt - Third Team (TF/XC)
2010 - Jason Lewis - First Team (TF/XC) & Ryan Whiting - First Team (TF/XC)
2009 - Jason Lewis - Second Team (TF/XC) & Ryan Whiting - Second Team (TF/XC)
2008 - Ryan Whiting - Second Team (TF/XC)
2001 - Garrett Jensen - Second Team (XC)

Women
2009 - Sarah Stevens - First Team (TF/XC)
2008 - April Kubishta - First Team (TF/XC) & Sarah Stevens - Second Team (TF/XC)
2005 - Jennifer Kowacz - Second Team (TF/XC)
2003 - Lisa Aguilera - Second Team (TF/XC)
2002 - Lisa Aguilera - Second Team (TF/XC)
2001 - Lisa Aguilera - First Team (XC) & Lisa Aguilera - Third Team (TF)
1990 - Gea Johnson - First Team (TF)