By: By: Bill Morgal, Sports Information Director
TOWSON, Md. – Senior
Bryan Beegle was named Tuesday to the 2010-11 Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-America College Division Second Team for men's track & field/cross country. Beegle was the only athlete from the PSAC to be chosen to the national All-America squad and one of just two Division II athletes from District II to be honored.
Beegle is a criminal justice graduate who finished with a 3.80 grade-point average. Earlier this year, Beegle became the first men's indoor track athlete in school history to receive a PSAC Winter Top 10 award. Last year, Beegle was a CoSIDA Academic All-District Second Team award winner.
He is the third SU athlete to be chosen as an Academic All-American this season, joining at-large selections Kristen Brooks (first team) and Amy Fisher (third team). The women's track & field/cross country selections will be announced on Thursday.
Beegle is Shippensburg's first male Academic All-American in five years; wrestler Corey Jacoby was a Second Team honoree on the at-large ballot in 2006. He is the first men's track & field competitor to receive Academic All-America honors since Justin Gindlesperger in 2003. Only two other men's track athletes have been honored in school history: Jeremy Scott (second team, 2002) and Randy Lowe (first team, 1992).
During the 2011 indoor track season, Beegle ran an unforgettable anchor leg on the Shippensburg distance medley relay squad that won a Division II national championship before individually placing second in the 5K to earn his first career individual All-America citation.
The DMR championship was not only SU's first national championship relay squad in school history, but it was also the first relay squad to ever achieve All-America honors. Individually, Beegle became the fourth SU indoor All-American in the 5K.
At the indoor conference championships, Beegle produced All-PSAC performances in mile and 3K with second-place finishes while running on the DMR squad that won a league title.
During the regular season, Beegle also broke the 1K school record at the Bucknell Heptagonal. His times in the mile and the 5K resulted in All-Region accolades from the USTFCCCA.
As a cross country runner, Beegle was instrumental in the Raiders winning their first PSAC championship in school history. During the regular season he achieved a sensational 8K time of 24:34 on the E.P. 'Tom' Sawyer Park course that later hosted the national championships. Beegle finished third at the PSAC meet and sixth at the regional meet with a 10K time of 31:48 before placing 67th at the Division II National Championships in December.
In his track career, Beegle is a 5-time NCAA indoor provisional qualifier and a 2-time NCAA outdoor provisional qualifier. He is a 13-time PSAC placewinner, 9-time All-PSAC award winner and a 4-time PSAC champion. He was named the 2009 PSAC Indoor Meet co-MVP along with East Stroudsburg's Chris Reddick.
Beegle has exhausted his eligibility as a cross country athlete but still has one season remaining in which he can compete in both indoor track & field and outdoor track & field. He redshirted indoors in 2007-08 and outdoors in 2008-09.
CoSIDA selects Academic All-America® teams in 12 programs. A first team and second team are selected in both the University (Division I and I-AA) and College (Division II, III and NAIA) Divisions.
To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 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.