Daniels grabs top national academic honor
Central Dutch Athletics
PELLA — Will Daniels (senior, Geneseo, Ill.) added more accolades to his trophy case Tuesday afternoon, as the former Central College men’s track and field standout was named the 2018-19 Google Cloud Academic All-America of the Year for the Division III Men’s Cross Country/Track and Field team.
Daniels is also included on the Academic All-America first team, matching his placement on the 2017-18 team
He is the third Central athlete to be named the Academic All-American of the year, joining Emilie Hanson (women’s basketball: 1994 and 1995) and Adam Duerfeldt (baseball: 2006). Central has had 52 student-athletes earn 62 Academic All-American honors, including 13 times by a member of the men’s track and field program.
To be eligible for Academic All-America consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity contributor, maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or better and have reached sophomore standing. CoSIDA members first submit ballots for a district team before selected nominees advance for consideration on the national squad. Selections were made based on accolades from the cross country and track and field seasons.
Daniels graduated with a degree in biology and a 3.99 GPA. He swept at the combined events at the NCAA Division III championships, winning the heptathlon indoors and the decathlon outdoors. In the heptathlon, he set the national record of 5,441 points and completed the second-best decathlon mark since 1985 with 7,427 points. He also had nine all-conference performances between the indoor and outdoor season.
