Gophers Named NWCA All-Academic Top 30 Team

Nick Dardanes, Scott Schiller, and Kevin Steinhaus receive individual recognition

The National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) has announced its annual Division I All-Academic Top 30 Teams and Individual All-Academic wrestling team for the 2012-13 wrestling season.

There were a total of 10 teams showing up on the All-Academic squad that finished in the top 30 at this year’s NCAA Division I Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Leading the way was 3x defending team champs Penn State and runner-up and third place finishers Oklahoma State and Minnesota. Minnesota landed at the No. 23 spot with a 3.069 cumulative GPA.

The team GPA was determined using a system that includes 12 student-athletes from each program. A total of 10 of these came from the wrestlers that were entries in the NCAA tournament conference qualifier. If teams had less than 10 entries for their respective qualifier, they were allowed to fill those spots with wrestlers that competed in at least one varsity dual during the season.

On this year’s Individual All-Academic Team there are 82 total athletes, four NCAA Champions, four NCAA Runner-Ups, 21 All-Americans, and 72 NCAA qualifiers. Redshirt sophomores Nick Dardanes and Scott Schiller, and redshirt junior Kevin Steinhaus all claimed places among the list.

Dardanes, a Sports Management major, totaled a 30-9 total while also leading the team with 12 major decisions on the mat. He finished seventh at the 2012-13 NCAA Tournament in the 141 lb. bracket to earn his first All-American status.

Schiller, a Business and Marketing Education major, posted a 29-6 record on the year at 197 lbs., including a 16-1 record in dual meets. He made his mark on the Big Ten with an 8-0 run through the regular season and a runner-up finish at the Big Ten Championships. Capping off the season with a fifth-place finish at the NCAAs, Schiller was named the team’s Most Dedicated Wrestler at the year-end banquet in early May.

A Kinesiology major, Steinhaus was recently named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District At-Large Team. In this past with the program, he amassed an impressive 29-4 overall mark mark. A two-time All-American and three-time NCAA qualifier, Steinhaus went an unblemished 18-0 through this year’s dual schedule and, for the second year in a row, marked an undefeated slate (8-0) in regular season conference action.

List of the Top 30 teams

List of the individual team

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