Football Zach Christ named to ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA All-District Team

http://www.bemidjistate.edu/athletics/sports/football/news/2007/20071108christaaa.html

Football Zach Christ named to ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA All-District Team
Senior linebacker recognized for academic success

Nov. 8, 2007

BEMIDJI, Minn. - Bemidji State University linebacker Zach Christ has been named to the ESPN the Magazine/College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) College Division Academic All-District V, as announced today by CoSIDA.

Christ, a senior from Buffalo, Minn., has been a mainstay on the BSU defense since arriving in 2004. He has finished among the Beavers’ top three tacklers in each of the last three seasons en route to piling up 233 career tackles (71 solo) with 19.5 coming for a loss. He has also recorded 7.5 quarterback sacks and four interceptions on a defense that has been among the top three in the country versus the run over the last two seasons. Christ’s 162 assisted tackles place him eighth on BSU all-time assisted stops list while he remains on the outer fringes of the top 10 total tackles chart.

For Christ, a two-time All-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference pick and 2007 Don Hansen Football Gazette Preseason All-American this marks the first award of its kind while he is the first BSU football student-athlete to garner the award since Mitch Feierabend and Mike Thomas earned second and third team honors at the conclusion of the 2004 campaign.

Christ is one of eight NSIC gridders to be honored by ESPN the Magazine and CoSIDA. The others were Concordia-St. Paul quarterback Kole Goodchild and defensive back Shawn Cunningham and offensive lineman Marcus Greatens of Winona State, named to the first team, second-team honorees Eric Eager a tight end from MSU Moorhead, Chris Brunkhorst a defensive lineman of Southwest Minnesota State University and Winona State’s Nick Urban and Craig Martindale.

Christ’s award comes on the heels of BSU soccer defender Megan Wallner being named to the District V Third Team. BSU has had at last one student-athlete named to the All-District team in each of the last six years and boasts 13 academic All-America selections dating back to the 1970s.

The ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District Teams are selected by a vote of the 2,000-member CoSIDA. To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve and maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.20 on a scale of 4.00. Sports information directors nominate eligible athletes from their schools, who are then voted onto the all-district teams. First-Team All-District honorees, such as Christ, advance to the All-America ballot. The program honors 816 student-athletes nation wide each year, and since the program’s inception in 1952 nearly 16,000 have been named to Academic All-America teams.

The Beavers, 6-4 overall and 5-3 in conference play, wrap up the 2007 campaign Friday when they face Upper Iowa University at the 24th annual NSIC Metrodome Classic in Minneapolis, Minn.
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