Hokie ClubGREENSBORO, N.C. – NC State senior Nick Gwiazdowski, who finished second in this year’s NCAA Wrestling Championships after winning national titles in 2014 and 2015, has been named the 2016 Atlantic Coast Conference Wrestling Scholar-Athlete of the Year and heads up the sport’s All-ACC Academic Team, announced Tuesday by Commissioner John Swofford.
The ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards were established in September 2007 to be awarded annually to the top junior or senior student-athlete in their respective sports. Candidates for the awards must have maintained a 3.0 grade point average for their career as well as a 3.0 for each of the last two semesters.
To be eligible for All-ACC Academic Team consideration, a student-athlete must have earned a minimum 3.00 grade point average for the previous semester and maintained a minimum 3.00 cumulative average during his academic career.
A total of eight members of this year’s 18-man All-ACC Academic Wrestling have been named to the team multiple times and are led by North Carolina senior Alex Utley (184), who is a four-time All-ACC Academic honoree, having also been selected in 2012, 2013 and 2014, before missing the 2015 season due to injury.
NC State’s Pete Renda (184) was named to the All-ACC Academic Wrestling team for the third time, while Gwiazdowski, Virginia Tech’s Jared Haught (197) and a quartet of wrestlers from Duke—Trey Adamson (184), Connor Bass (157), Jake Faust (165) and Conner Hartmann—were named for the second time.
Six members of the All-ACC Academic team also earned All-Americas honors and in Gwiazdowski, Renda, Hartmann, and three from Virginia Tech in Solomon Chishko, David McFadden and Jared Haught.
Gwiazdowski (285), Hartmann (197) and Virginia Tech’s Zack Zavatsky (184) were ACC champions, and they were joined on the All-ACC wrestling team by Chishko (141), Renda (184) and Haught (197).
Virginia led all schools with five student-athletes on the 2015 All-ACC Wrestling Academic Team. Virginia Tech and Duke each had four honorees, while NC State and North Carolina had two apiece and Pitt had one selection.
2016 All-ACC Academic Wrestling Team
Name School Year Wgt. Major Hometown
**Trey Adamson Duke Sr.-R 184 Evolutionary Anthropology Riverton, Utah
Andrew Atkinson Virginia Jr. 157 Kinesiology Lynchburg, Va.
**Connor Bass Duke Jr. 157 Economics Yorkville, Ill.
Solomon Chishko Virginia Tech Fr. 141 PTW Jeannette, Pa.
**Jake Faust Duke So.-R 165 Sociology Bellville, Ohio
Patrick Gillen Virginia Gr. 285 Higher Education Shelton, Conn.
**Nick Gwiazdowski NC State Jr.-R 285 Parks, Recreation & Tourism Mgt. Delanson, N.Y.
***Conner Hartmann Duke Sr.-R 197 Economics Port Orchard, Wash.
**Jared Haught Virginia Tech Fr.-R 197 Mechanical Engineering Parkersburg, W.Va.
Robert Henderson North Carolina Sr.-R 157 Economics New Florence, Pa.
David McFadden Virginia Tech Fr. 165 University Studies West Milford, N.J.
Zach Nye Virginia Sr. 197 Higher Education Enola, Pa.
Garrett Peppelman Virginia Fr.-R 165 Commerce Harrisburg, Pa.
***Peter Renda NC State So. 174 Business Administration Topton, Pa.
****Alex Utley North Carolina Sr.-R 184 War & Peace, War & Defense Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Chris Yankowich Virginia Sr.-R 149 Media Studies Norristown, Pa.
Nick Zanetta Pitt So.-R 141 Business Information Systems Pittsburgh, Pa.
Zack Zavatsky Virginia Tech Fr.-R 184 PSD Latrobe, Pa.
** - Two-time honoree
*** - Three-time honoree
**** - Four-time honoree
ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Nick Gwiazdowski