6/30/2004 - Men's Track and Field
Navy Places 11 on Patriot League Academic Honor Roll for Men's Track and Field
Eric Eckstrand |
CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - Third-Team Academic All-American Eric Eckstrand (Wilmington, Del.) headlined the list of 11 Navy student-athletes named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll for Men's Track and Field, it was announced this week by the league office. A total of 140 men's track and field student-athletes garnered academic honors from the league.
Eckstrand recently graduated from the Naval Academy with a 3.82 grade-point average in computer science and will pursue a master's degree in computer science from Delaware before continuing his military career at nuclear power school. Athletically, Eckstrand served as the 2003 cross country team captain and earned First-Team All-Patriot League honors in the sport after placing third at the league championship. He would go on to earn Second-Team All-Patriot League accolades at the indoor track championship when he placed second in the 5,000-meter run before finishing his career with a fourth-place finish in the 10,000 meters at the Patriot League Outdoor Championship.
Among the other Navy recipients were recent graduates Dave Hunt (Rochester, N.Y.) and Bobby Sparks (Yorba Linda, Calif.), as well as Michael Niemi (Duluth, Minn.) who posted a 4.0 GPA during the second semester.
To be eligible, a student-athlete must earn a 3.20 grade-point average in the spring semester and be awarded a varsity letter in one of the League's six winter or nine spring championship sports. A total of 806 student-athletes were named to the League's Winter/Spring Academic Honor Roll, including 38 with perfect 4.00 GPAs. The Winter/Spring Academic Honor Roll includes the sports of men's and women's basketball, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's indoor track & field, baseball, golf, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's outdoor track & field, softball and men's and women's tennis.
Navy Members of the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll
Name Cl. Major GPA Hometown/High School
Barry Carmody Jr. Mechanical Engineering 3.70 Elk Grove, Calif./Jesuit
Eric Eckstrand Sr. Computer Science 3.68 Wilmington, Del./Salesianum
Wade Gauthier Fr. Quantitative Economics 3.56 Reading, Mass./Reading Memorial
Dave Hunt Sr. Systems Engineering 3.60 Rochester, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit
Eric Marx Fr. Naval Architecture 3.65 Indiana, Pa./Indiana Senior
Matt Mayer Jr. Physics 3.22 Bellevue, Texas/Bellevue
Michael Niemi Fr. Systems Engineering 4.00 Duluth, Minn./Duluth Central
Kyle Obrock Jr. Oceanography 3.26 Boalsburg, Pa./State College Area
Bobby Sparks Sr. Economics 3.38 Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza
Samuel Spletzer So. Systems Engineering 3.67 Cedarburg, Wis./Milwaukee Lutheran
David Taveras Jr. History 3.63 Cape Coral, Fla./Cypress Lake
