Posted: Nov 18, 2016

Saglimbeni joins elite group as repeat Academic All-American

ORANGE, Calif. – The college career of senior Marco Saglimbeni may have come to an end but the awards continue to roll in as Saglimbeni was named an Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America for the second consecutive year.

After earning second team honors in 2015, Saglimbeni made the leap to the First Team this year on the strength of another solid season on the pitch and in the classroom. He led the Panthers in scoring for the third year in a row and raised his cumulative GPA to 3.95.

Saglimbeni led the Panthers with eight goals this year and distributed five assists for a team-best 21 points. Three of his goals went down as game-winners, which brought him up to second all-time at Chapman with 10 career game-winners.

The biological sciences major scored 29 career goals, which ranks fifth in Chapman history, and had 12 career assists. He appeared in 83 matches over his four years at Chapman – more than any Panther before him.

The two-year team captain also helped Chapman to a SCIAC Tournament appearance in each of his four seasons. He was a three-time All-SCIAC first team selection and an NSCAA All-Region selection last year. He led the Panthers to their first NCAA appearance in five years and assisted on Chapman's game-winning goal in the first round, which gave the Panthers their first NCAA Tournament win since 1998.

Saglimbeni is the sixth student-athlete in Chapman history to earn two selections on to CoSIDA's Academic All-America teams. He joins Matt Hertzler (football), Stephanie Carew (softball), Matt Barcellona (baseball), Zack Wheatley (basketball) and Kimi Takaoka (basketball) as Panthers to earn the prestigious honor twice. He was the first men's soccer player to earn the award last year and is one of 22 Panthers overall.

Chapman's 22 individuals to earn Academic All-America honors have combined for 29 selections since 1983.

CoSIDA began the distinguished Academic All-America® program in the 1950's, and since then, has honored thousands of deserving student-athletes from numerous sports and across all divisions with these elite Academic All-America® scholar-athlete honors. Currently, CoSIDA honors Academic All-Americans in 12 sports.

The Academic All-America® program is comprised of four divisional teams, with student-athletes being honored separately in Division I, Division II and Division III. A fourth team - the College Division team - is comprised of NAIA, Canadian and two-year student-athletes. (Formerly, there were two teams - University Division (D1) and a College Division (all others).

by Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director

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