Baseball-player Mike Nodzenski ’12, who has received several honors over his career, has just collected one of the biggest.
Nodzenski, a biology major and catcher from Naperville, Ill., was named to the 2012 Capital One Academic All-America Division III First Team. He is the 22nd Academic All-America selection in Grinnell history and the first since Henry Reich ’09 earned the award for track and cross country in 2009.
Nodzenski is the fourth Grinnell baseball player to earn Academic All-America recognition, joining Ian Lin ’88, Ari MacKinnon ’02, and Randy Seeley ’89.
A four-time Midwest Conference South Division Player of the Year, Nodzenski rewrote the Grinnell record book during his career.
Among the preseason All-American’s career marks are batting average (.395), home runs (38), doubles (50), RBIs (169), slugging percentage (.725), and on-base percentage (.483). This season, he ranked second in the league in slugging percentage (.642) and doubles (16), was third in home runs (seven), and fifth in on-base percentage (.483). He was sixth in RBIs with 33 and eighth in batting average at .366.
He was recently named to the D3baseball.com All-Region First Team and was a second-team All-Region pick by Rawlings/ABCA.
The Academic All-America Team is selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
