March 31, 2005

Park Ridge, IL -- As the winter term of the 2004-05 school year comes to a close, the Big Ten recognizes a total of 444 winter sports student-athletes who have been named to the Academic All-Conference Team. The list of honored student-athletes features 25 men's and 43 women's basketball players, 25 men's and 56 women's gymnasts, 91 men's and 156 women's swimmers and divers and 48 wrestlers. To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten selection, athletes must be letterwinners in at least their second academic year at their institution and carry a career grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 or better.

At least three Big Ten student-athletes have maintained unblemished GPAs, including a gymnast and a pair of swimmers from two separate institutions. Ohio State junior gymnast Emily Sineway (Health Information Management) maintains a 4.0 and is joined in the exclusive group by two Purdue swimmers in senior Jill Collins (Education) and sophomore Kimbre Vogel (Pre-Medicine).

The Big Ten Academic All-Conference honorees also achieved excellence outside of the classroom. Michigan State senior Chris Hill (Finance) was named Academic All-American of the Year for the second consecutive year and earned Academic All-America accolades for the third straight season, becoming the first Big Ten player since Northwestern's Shon Morris (1986-88) to be honored in three consecutive seasons. Joining Hill on the Academic All-Big Ten team was Illinois junior Dee Brown (Sports Management), who earned Big Ten Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year accolades while leading the Illini to their first Final Four since 1989. Also on the court, Ohio State sophomore Jessica Davenport (Family Resource Management) was named the Player of the Year after leading the League in scoring. Additional First Team All-Big Ten selections who garnered academic honors include Michigan State's Kristin Haynie (Sr., Family Community Service), the three-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, Penn State's Tanisha Wright (Sr., Elementary and Kindergarten Education) and PSU teammate Jessica Strom (Sr., Human Development and Family Studies). In women's gymnastics, Michigan senior Elise Ray (English) won her second consecutive all-around title at the Big Ten Championships, while also sharing Co-Big Ten Gymnast of the Year laurels with fellow Academic All-Big Ten honoree Carolyn Yernberg (Sr., Environmental Design and Landscape) of Minnesota. On the men's side, Illinois' Ben Newman (Sr., Finance) won the pommel horse for the third consecutive year and Minnesota senior Guillermo Alvarez (Psychology) earned his first Big Ten title in the vault competition, while also garnering Academic All-Big Ten accolades. In the pool, Indiana's Marc Carlton (Sr., Telecommunications) was named Big Ten Diver of the Year and Indiana's Cassandra Cardinell (Sr., Telecommunications) won the platform at the NCAA Championships. In wrestling, Michigan's Ryan Bertin (Sr., Business Administration) was chosen as the Big Ten Wrestler of the Year while collecting academic laurels.

The 2004-05 Winter Academic All-Big Ten selections are listed below by school, along with the number of winter sports sponsored by each university:

2004-05 Academic All-Big Ten