Moon Township, Pa. ? For the second time in his career, Senior Jeff Witmyer (West Lawn, Pa. / Wilson), a member of the Robert Morris University men's track and field team, has been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Men's Track & Field / Cross Country First Team. Witmyer, an information systems major, claimed the honor for achieving a 3.72 grade point average during the 2006-07 academic year.
The recent recipient of the 2007 Northeast Conference Winter Scholar-Athlete award for men's track and field, Witmyer put on a display at the 2007 NEC Indoor Track and Field Championships. The senior captured the indoor high jump crown for the second time in his career as well as establishing a new meet record with a jump of 6'11.50". The new record broke a six-year old mark by half an inch and punched his ticket for the 2007 IC4A / ECAC Indoor Track and Field Championships in Boston, Mass. At that meet Witmyer claimed a fourth place finished with a height of 6'8”.
Witmyer joins former Colonial stand outs Justin Wotus and Christian Lemke as the only members of the men's track and field team to garnish this honor.
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 consisting of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.
To be eligible, a student-athletes 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.
