Three Big Ten Conference women’s basketball students have earned Academic All-America honors, it was announced Thursday by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Iowa senior guard Ally Disterhoft was chosen as a first-team Academic All-American and the 2017 CoSIDA Academic All-America Team Member of the Year, earning the latter honor for the second consecutive year. Disterhoft is now a three-time Academic All-American, having received third-team accolades in 2015 before rising to the first team the past two seasons. She is the fifth three-time women’s basketball Academic All-American ever to come from a current Big Ten school, along with Michigan’s Diane Dietz (1980-82), Michigan State’s Deborah Traxinger (1980-82), Nebraska’s Karen Jennings (1991-93) and most recently, Penn State’s Kelly Mazzante (2002-04).
Disterhoft is also just the fifth women’s basketball student from any school to receive the Academic All-America Team Member of the Year award in back-to-back years. She joins Elena Delle Donne of Delaware (2012-13, 2011-12), Maya Moore of Connecticut (2010-11, 2009-10), Karen Jennings of Nebraska (1992-93, 1991-92) and Michelle Flamoe of Oregon State (1988-89, 1987-88) as the only students to be named as Division I Women’s Basketball Academic All-America Team Member of the Year in consecutive seasons.
Joining Disterhoft on this year’s Academic All-America scrolls are Indiana junior forward Amanda Cahill and Minnesota junior guard Carlie Wagner, who each received third-team honors. Both Cahill and Wagner earned the first Academic All-America citations of their career. Cahill is the first Indiana women’s basketball student to receive Academic All-America recognition since 1989 (Ann Mooney and Amy Vanderkolk), while Wagner is the first Golden Gopher women’s basketball student named an Academic All-American since 2006, when April Calhoun earned the second of her two career honors.
This marks the second time in the past three years the Big Ten has had three Academic All-America women’s basketball selections in the same season. In 2015, Michigan’s Nicole Elmblad and Iowa’s Samantha Logic received top academic honors alongside Disterhoft.
The full list of CoSIDA Academic All-America women’s basketball teams can be found online at cosida.com.
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