VOLUME 12, NO. 2     JANUARY 1999

Athletes Achieve All-America Honors

enior Mike Pockoski of Dayville, Conn., and Mike Willock '98 of Rockland, Mass., were named to the GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-America Spring At-Large Team last spring. The men were the first two WPI athletes to earn national honors in the same season. Pockoski was named to the First Team; Willock received Second Team-honors.

Pockoski, a civil engineering major, has become one of the most dominant weight men in New England Division III. Last year, he earned All-America honors three times in indoor and outdoor track and field; he was New England Division III champion in the 35-pound weight throw and hammer, and ECAC weight-throw champion. He set school records in weight throw, hammer and discus and was national runner-up in the hammer at the spring 1998 NCAA Division III Championships. He was the first WPI track and field athlete to qualify for two events, discus and hammer throw, in the same NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships.

Willock, a mathematical sciences major who works at Andersen Consulting in Wellesley, Mass., was WPI's No. 1 golfer in 1998. With a stroke average of 80, he led the team to a 13-2 fall season and to the Engineers Cup last spring.

What makes an All-American?

The Academic All-America program, sponsored by GTE and the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), honors athletes in football, volleyball, men's and women's basketball, baseball and softball. In addition, there are two at-large teams for the fall/winter and spring seasons to allow athletes in other sports to be honored.

To be considered for an All-America team, athletes must have a GPA of 3.2 or higher; be sophomores, juniors or seniors or in their second year of eligibility; and be a starter or significant reserve for their team. Individuals selected to their district's First Team automatically go on to the national ballot. In the last four years WPI has had four National Academic All-Americans, and has placed 10 athletes on District 1 First and Second teams.