McKendree University graduate student men's swimmer Xander Skinner (Namibia, Africa/Windhoek Afrikaans Private School) headlines the 2021-22 Academic All-America® Division II Men's At-Large Team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Skinner is just the third-ever CoSIDA Academic All-American in school history and the first student-athlete from McKendree to be named a CoSIDA Academic All-America® Team Member of the Year.
"Xander is the complete package that every coach dreams about having as part of their team. He came to McKendree eager to fit in and make a big impact on the Bearcats program and boy, did he ever leave his mark!" McKendree men's and women's swimming & diving head coach Jimmy Tierney said. "He was a stellar student and quite the team leader, as well. He was a co-captain in both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. He set the bar high for the rest of the team with a total commitment to team goals as a student and an athlete. Xander will be dearly missed, but his legacy will live on for years to come."
Skinner capped his outstanding collegiate career this past March by earning seven All-American honors in the pool at the 2022 NCAA Division II Men's Swimming & Diving Championships to help lead the Bearcats to a repeat fourth place finish overall as a team. With those seven All-American honors this season, Skinner closed his time as a Bearcat swimmer with 21 All-America certificates.
"It is a great honor receiving this award and to be the first student-athlete in McKendree history makes it a little more special. I would like to thanks McKendree for making this possible and allowing me to live my dream as a student-athlete," Skinner said. "I would also like to thank my coaches that helped me since my freshman year, Elanore Stevens and Nathan Townsend and a very special thanks to Jimmy Tierney that believed in me all the way. I could not have done this without the support from my parents and endless love they have for me. I will always be a Bearcat in my heart and always thankful for the university."
Along with earning seven All-America honors at this year's NCAA Championships, Skinner also captured four gold medals at the 2022 Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships as he finished first in the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle and was on McKendree's gold medal winning 400 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay teams. In his career, he won 10 gold medals at the GLVC Championships.
"Xander was a major contributor right way while scoring major points for us in our highest finish ever at the NCAA's (15th). Two years later, he was a force for the Bearcats helping to push us to a second place finish at the 2020 GLVC Championships. At the NCAA's that year, he helped McKendree shock the swimming world by charging to the top of the team scoring before the meet was shut down by COVID-19," Tierney added.
At this year's NCAA National Championships, Skinner, who is pursuing an MBA at McKendree and carries a 3.88 cumulative GPA in graduate school and carried a 3.86 GPA as an undergraduate as he earned his bachelor's degree in Exercise Science and Sport Performance in May of 2021, was a member of McKendree's 400 medley relay team that repeated as the National Runner-up and was a member of the 800 freestyle relay that also finished as National Runners-up. He also earned two GLVC Men's Swimmer of the Week honors in 2021-22 and earned four of those accolades in his career. He took home the GLVC's Brother James Gaffney Distinguished Scholar Award for the 2019-20 school year.
In addition to Skinner being named the CoSIDA Division II Men's At-Large Academic All-American of the Year, Bearcat junior men's tennis player Leonardo Frederico (Tijucas-Santa Cantrina, Brazil/Unicesumar) was also named to the Academic All-America® Division II Men's At-Large Team as a first team selection.
Frederico, who carries a 3.94 cumulative grade point average in Economic & Finance and Sports Management, earns his Academic All-American accolade following his historic season this spring. Frederico became the first McKendree men's tennis player to be named a Conference Player of the Year as the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) named him as the 2022 Men's Tennis Player of the Year. On the season, Frederico was also a First-Team All-GLVC selection and served as the team captain for a Bearcat team that won a school record 21 matches, took home its first-ever GLVC Tournament championship and advanced to the finals of the NCAA Midwest Region 2 Tournament. He posted a 20-4 record playing at the No. 1 singles spot in the line-up, including going undefeated in his six GLVC singles matches and finished the season ranked No. 2 in singles in the Midwest Region and No. 53 nationally in the final ITA Division II Player rankings. In doubles, he teamed with graduate student Boriss Kamdem (Ghent, Belgium/University of Tulsa) to post an 18-7 record and the pair finished the season with a No. 7 ranking in the Midwest Region and a No. 25 ranking nationally in the final ITA Division II doubles player rankings. Frederico was a recipient of the GLVC's Br. James Gaffney Distinguished Scholar Award for the 2020-21 school year.
Skinner and Frederico are two of eight student-athletes from the GLVC named to the 2022 CoSIDA Division II Academic All-America Men's At-Large Team and two of five GLVC student-athletes named First Team selections. The other GLVC student-athletes selected Academic All-Americans are Lindenwood graduate student Gerald Brown (Swimming & Diving), University of Indianapolis junior Cade Hammond (Tennis), Missouri S&T senior Andy Huffman (Swimming & Diving), Lindenwood senior Peter Covington (Lacrosse), University of Indianapolis graduate student Oliver Mast (Golf), University of Illinois-Springfield senior Menno Servaes (Tennis). Brown, Frederico, Hammond, Huffman and Skinner were first team selections, while Covington and Mast were second team honorees and Servaes is a third team selection.
Prior to this year, the only two previous CoSIDA Academic All-Americans from McKendree came during the 2000-01 school year as running back Allen Walter was a 2000 Second-Team Academic All-America Football Team College Division selection, while infielder Justin Knolhoff was a 2021 First-Team Academic All-America Baseball Team College Division selection. Both of those selections came when McKendree was an NAIA member institution.
The Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division II national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2021-22 Division II Academic All-America® teams' program.
The at-large program for the CoSIDA Academic All-America® program includes the sports of fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming, and diving, tennis, water polo for both men and women; bowling, crew and field hockey for women; and volleyball and wrestling for men.
Twenty members of the Academic All-America Division II Men's At-Large Teams boast a perfect 4.0 GPA in their undergraduate work or graduate school. The 17 members of the first team have an average GPA of 3.96.
Fourteen student-athletes are repeat selections on the Academic All-America Division II Men's At-Large Team - Tobi Azeez (Mount Olive), Jan Delkeskamp (Queens University of Charlotte), Andy Huffman (Missouri S&T), Mitchell Linklater (Lenoir-Rhyne), Myles Moffat (Lenoir-Rhyne), Juan Ortiz Couder (Embry-Riddle), Jonas Soerensen (Wingate), Jordan Will (Minot State), Mahmoud Elgayar (Colorado Mesa), Weston Hunt (Colorado School of Mines), Cole Laya (West Liberty), Oliver Mast (University of Indianapolis), Sam Sippel (Azusa Pacific) and Garrett Vos (St. Cloud State).
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