General | 6/8/2017 12:36:00 PM

CoSIDA Release | CoSIDA Release (PDF)

AUSTIN, Texas – On Thursday, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) announced that one Alaska Nanook was honored for his hard work in the classroom and on the ski trails, as redshirt senior Michael Fehrenbach was named to the 2017 Academic All-America Division I At-Large First Team. The award is Fehrenbach's second CoSIDA Academic All-America honor in two years.

The CoSIDA Academic At-Large teams recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their performances athletically, and also in the classroom. The CoSIDA Academic At-Large category recognizes student-athletes from NCAA Division I, II and III with women's beach volleyball, women's bowling, women's rowing, women's field hockey, men's and women's golf, men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's ice hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's rifle, men's and women's skiing, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's tennis, men's volleyball, men's and women's water polo and men's wrestling making up the At-Large nomination pool.

Fehrenbach receives the Academic All-America First Team honor after being named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District At-Large First Team from District Eight, which comprises of schools from Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Canada.  Those who were selected to the First Team from their respected districts advanced to the All-America pool for re-voting.

A Mechanical Engineer at Alaska, Fehrenbach graduated this past May with a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average, one of only six perfect GPAs on the All-America First Team. A dual-sport athlete at UAF, Fehrenbach's efforts as a leader on the Nanooks' Nordic ski team made the Saint Margen, Germany native eligible for the At-Large nomination. Out of the 45 male student-athletes to be named to the Academic All-America First, Second or Third Team, Fehrenbach represents as the only Nordic skier.

This past season, Fehrenbach was named to the United States Collegiate Ski Coaches Association (USCSCA) All-Academic Team, while also being named the Alaska men's Nordic ski team's Most Valuable Skier and Dr. William Wood Scholar-Athlete. Fehrenbach led the Alaska Nanooks' men's team to qualify a full team to the 2017 NCAA Skiing National Championships for the first time in over four years.

Throughout his five-year career with the Alaska Nanooks, Fehrenbach is a two-time Elite-90 award winner (2014, 2016), a 2016 CoSIDA Academic At-Large All-District First Team selection (2016), a CoSIDA Academic At-Large First Team All-American (2016), a four-time Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) Scholar-Athlete and a two-time USCSCA All-Academic team selection.

For more information on the Alaska Nanooks men's and women's Nordic ski teams, follow @AlaskaNanooksXC on Twitter or like the Alaska Nanooks XC team page on Facebook.