Takaoka earns third straight Capital One Academic All-District honors

ORANGE, Calif. – For the third straight season, Chapman University women's basketball player Kimi Takaoka has been named to the Capital One Academic All-District VIII Women's Basketball team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The senior guard becomes the first Panther women's basketball player in a decade to receive the honor in three consecutive seasons and the first Chapman athlete in seven years to accomplish the feat.

Takaoka is just the seventh Chapman athlete in school history to earn the recognition in three straight seasons.

Player                                       Sport                                        Years 

Matt Barcellona                           Baseball                                   1997-99

Matt Greco                                 Football                                    2002-04

Mel Bongiorno                            Women's Basketball                   2002-04

Liz Hopkins                                Women's Soccer                        2002-04

Zach Wheatley                           Men's Basketball                        2004-06

Patrick Carney                           Men's Basketball                        2005-07

Kimi Takaoka                          Women's Basketball               2012-14

Takaoka's outstanding performance transcends both on and off the court, as she holds a 3.93 cumulative grade point average entering her last semester at Chapman.  The Arcadia, Calif. native joins Mel Bongiorno as the only two players in the programs history to earn the recognition three times.

The athletic training major leads the SCIAC conference with an average of 21.7 points per game on 44.2 percent shooting from the field. She has scored in double-digits in each of the Panthers' 18 games this season, tallying 20 or more points in 12 of those contests.  

Takaoka, who has accumulated several awards throughout her decorated career, adds the All-District honor to her two SCIAC Female Athletic of the Week honors this season (Dec. 16-30, Jan. 6-12). She was named to the Capital One Academic All-America team (Division III, third team) in 2012-13.

Chapman (14-5) is currently tied for first in the SCIAC standings with five games remaining. This Saturday, the Panthers will play host to the University of Redlands Bulldogs at 7 p.m. in the Hutton Sports Center.

The Capital One Academic All-America program honors male and female student-athletes in 12 sports annually. Students must be varsity starters or key reserves, maintain a cumulative grade-point average of 3.30 on a 4.00 scale, and have maintained at least a sophomore standing athletically and academically. Chapman is a member of District VIII, which includes Division III schools from throughout the Western United States.

Capital One Academic All-District VIII Women's Basketball team: http://www.cosida.com/documents/2014/1/30/Acad_AllDistrict_WBasket2014.pdf

by Ryan Cavinder and Caitlynn Wentworth
Sports Information Staff

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