December 2, 2004
Football
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BAUMGARTNER NAMED FIRST TEAM ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN

UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – Senior defensive lineman Neil Baumgartner (Iron River, Mich./West Iron County HS) has been named a CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American in the College Division as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America. This year’s Academic All-America Team is sponsored by ESPN The Magazine. Baumgartner maintains a 4.0 GPA in the classroom in Secondary Education and also excelled on the field in 2004.

He was named First Team All-GLIAC Defense this season after recording 65 tackles and 6.5 tackles for loss. In addition, Neil racked up 4.5 sacks this season and finished his career at SVSU ranked second all-time with 21 sacks. Baumgartner tallied a season-high 11 tackles and 1.5 sacks at Ferris State on November 6. Neil played in 47 career games and started in 41 contests. His 258 career tackles ranks 14th all-time at SVSU and he was a part of a senior class in 2004 that recorded a four-year record of 39-9.

Neil is the only SVSU football player to earn First Team Academic All-America honors two years in a row as he earned the same honor as a junior. Last season, Baumgartner was named the recipient of the Jack McAvoy Award presented by the GLIAC and he also was named Great Lakes Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the conference commissioners. Baumgartner was a four-year letterman who won the Mo Clevering Award for the highest GPA on the squad for four straight years. Baumgartner began the 2004 season as a Preseason Second Team All-American as voted on by D2Football.com.

Contact: Ryan Thompson (989) 964-4053

##SVSU##