Molly Bauman voted Academic All-American

June 21, 2006


Molly Bauman broke a school record in the 400-meter hurdles

St. Thomas' Molly Bauman (SR-Coon Rapids) was voted to the ESPN The Magazine College Division Academic All-America team for women's track and field and cross country.

A second-team honoree, Bauman was one of 46 overall honorees and among five from the MIAC on the elite team announced Thursday.

Bauman, who has a 3.84 gpa in Psychology, was a three-time All-American on the track. She helped UST win seven of a possible eight MIAC track team titles in her era.

Bauman placed third in the 400-meter hurdles at last month's NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships in Lisle, Ill. Bauman ran 61.22, just off her career-best and school-record 60.83 clocked in Thursday's prelims. She also earned relay All-America honors in the 2004 and 2005 outdoor national meets.

At the May 12-13 MIAC Outdoor Championships, Bauman had a hand in 46 points and four firsts. She swept the 100 and 400 hurdles, ran on the winning 4x100 and 4x400 relays, and also took third in the 100 meters. At the MIAC Indoor Championships last March, she had a hand in 27 team points as she repeated as 55 hurdles champ (8.46); ran on the winning 4x200 relay in a meet record 1:44.70; ran on the winning 4x400 relay; took fifth in the 200 (26.51); and ran on the seventh-place distance-medley relay (12:49.40).

Academic All-America
The Academic All-America® Teams program honors 816 male and female student-athletes annually who have succeeded at the highest level on the playing field and in the classroom. Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America; a 2,000-member organization consisted of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.

Record for Tommies
Bauman's award let St. Thomas' break its own conference record in 2005-06 with eight ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America honorees.

Six MIAC institutions combined to win 22 Academic All-America honors in 2005-06. After St. Thomas' eight recipients, Gustavus had four; Concordia-Moorhead, St. John's and Hamline each had three; and Carleton had one.

The Tommies' previous one-year high was seven in 2002-2003. Others MIAC institutions to receive six honorees in one season were St. John's (1994-1995), Gustavus (2000-2001) and St. Thomas (2001-2002).

Twice in 2005-2006, the Toms had a rare three honorees in one sport.

In football, Ben Kessler was a repeat first-team honoree, while Andrew Ubbelohde and P.J. Theisen made second team. (UST was one of just two Division III teams with three football honorees).

In softball, NCAA runner-up St. Thomas also had three recipients, with Maria Bye first team, Nikki Conway on second team and Carrie Embree on third team. (Of the nearly 1,000 schools who play softball in Divisions I, II and III and NAIA, St. Thomas was the lone institution to have three Academic All-Americans.)

Track and field All-Americans Theisen and Bauman were announced this week.

UST has received this coveted Academic All-American honor 49 times, including 31 honorees in the last six years.

see women's track/CC honorees here