Fritz Nugent (Tinley Park, IL) will be in the running for the Academic All-American of the Year award tomorrow, Aug. 12, live on ESPNU at 3:30 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m. EST), according to a release today by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Selected by CoSIDA, the award winners will be announced as part of The Big 12 Conference College Football Preview Show.

The Academic All-American of the Year honor, which began in 1987-88, is awarded to the most outstanding student-athlete of the year and is chosen from the student-athletes who have been awarded Team Member of the Year honors. From more than 360,000 student-athletes in the nation, just 816 are selected as Academic All-America Team members each year, 24 are selected as Team Members of the Year and two are named Academic All-America of the Year.

A College Division and University Division winner will be announced.

Nugent, who just completed a stellar athletic career at Redlands, garnered recognition among the top scholar-athletes and stands as the Academic All-America Team Member representing men’s track & field in the College Division.

Personifying the ideals of a true student-athlete, Nugent balanced his duties as a student and as an athlete and performed both to the highest degree. He boasted a 3.96 cumulative GPA in his first year of graduate school at Redlands following a four-year tenure as an undergraduate where he obtained a 3.66 GPA. In competition, Nugent experienced similar success. He won the gold medal in the Long Jump at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and was recently named the Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

For more information about the Academic All-America Teams program, please visit www.cosida.com.