STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford came in sixth on this year's National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Scholar All-American Team list, the organization announced Thursday.
For the 12th consecutive season the Cardinal placed in the top 16 in the nation with a 3.385 team GPA. Drexel topped the list with a 3.589 team GPA, while American (3.549) and Harvard (3.496) were the top 3 teams for the second straight year.
Representing Stanford as individual Scholar All-Americans were redshirt junior Nathan Traxler (computer science), redshirt sophomore Foster Karmon (science, technology and society), redshirt freshmen Shane Griffith and Real Woods, and true freshman Jackson DiSario.
Iowa led the nation with eight individual NWCA Scholar All-Americans, while the Cardinal was one of 10 schools with five or more selections, joined by Cornell, Illinois, Lehigh, Missouri, NC State, Nebraska, Princeton, and Ohio State.
Traxler (197 pounds) is a three-time honoree, while DiSario (125 pounds), Griffith (165 pounds), Karmon (174 pounds) and Woods (141 pounds) each pick up their first career recognition.
The Cardinal made up 50 percent of the individual honorees from the Pac-12 Conference. Joining Stanford's five honorees from the Pac-12 Conference were Arizona State's Tanner Hall, Josh Shields and Anthony Valencia, and CSU Bakersfield's Josh Loomer and Russell Rohlfing. Stanford (6th) and Arizona State (29th) were the only Pac-12 institutions listed in the Scholar All-America Team top 30 list.
Awarded annually, the NWCA All-Academic Team contains 175 student-athletes from 63 different schools. The team grade-point average was determined using a system that includes 12 student-athletes from each program.