Friday, February 06, 2009

MACON, Ga. - Standout athletes on and off the court, Andy Wicke of Belmont and Adrianne McNally of FGCU earned spots on the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District Teams.

This marks the second time a FGCU Basketball player has been named Academic All-District, with McNally joining former Eagle Beau Bauer (2007).

The District III team is made up of student-athletes from Division I schools in the states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

McNally, a junior, was the only female Atlantic Sun Conference student-athlete named to any of the Academic All-District basketball team’s. She maintains a 3.46 cumulative grade point average as a pre-nursing major.

On the court, McNally is FGCU’s second leading scorer with 13.4 points per game, and has scored in double digits in 17 of FGCU’s 22 games this season. The Howell, Mich., native also averages a team-high 6.1 rebounds and shoots 49.3-percent from the field and 48.1-percent from three-point range. A 5-11 forward, she ranks second in the A-Sun in field goal percentage and fourth in assists. She is currently second in rebounds (452), third in points (863), and fourth in assists (192) all-time at FGCU.

Less than 24 hours after earning one of the nation's top student-athlete honors, Belmont University men's basketball senior Andy Wicke garnered more recognition, being named to District I First Team.

On Wednesday, Wicke was named one of 10 finalists for the prestigious Lowe's Senior Class Award for men's basketball - one of the highest individual honors a Bruin player has ever received.

Then Thursday, the 6-2 guard became the latest in a long line of Bruins to earn Academic All-District honors.

Wicke is on pace to finish his career as the fourth leading scorer in the Bruins' NCAA era. Moreover, with 269 career three-point field goals, Wicke is threatening to become the Atlantic Sun Conference's career leader in makes from behind the arc.

Currently, he leads the Atlantic Sun and stands 17th in the NCAA in steals per game (2.52). He leads the league in three-point field goals per game and ranks in the Top 15 in eight statistical categories.

Wicke joins Frank Davis of Tennessee Tech, David Kool of Western Michigan and Joe Jakubowski and Marc Larson of Bowling Green State on the team from District Four. There are eight districts in the university (Division I) classification; District Four consists of Division-I institutions from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.

In order to be eligible, athletes must have a 3.3 cumulative grade point average or higher, be at least a sophomore, and have been at the same institution for at least a year.

Wicke holds a 3.74 GPA in his chosen major of environmental studies.

Full lists of all districts can be found at CoSIDA.com