AUSTIN, Texas – Nova Southeastern women’s track and field and cross country graduated senior Michelle Bauer delivered a program-first honor on Wednesday, as officials from the College Sports Information Directors of America announced Bauer as the track/cross country program’s first CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-American®, honored among the award’s third team members.
The Division II Academic All-America® program is financially supported by the NCAA Division II national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2019-20 Division II Academic All-America® teams program. Despite the cancellation of spring competition during COVID-19, CoSIDA continued its sponsorship of the Academic All-America® awards program. Student-athletes were selected based on career statistics.
Bauer (St. Marys, Pa.) graduated in just three years with a degree in Finance and a perfect 4.0 grade point average, despite working through minors in Spanish, International Business, Honors Transdisciplinary Studies and Experiential Leadership – in addition to her role as one of the long-distance leaders for the Sharks.
A perpetual standout for the Sharks on the cross country course, Bauer paced all Sharks runners in each of the seven meets of the 2019 season – a feat she also achieved in 2017 as a rookie. In her career as a Shark, Bauer has topped the NSU scoring pack in 15-of-20 races. In 2019, Bauer produced three top-10 finishes, highlighted by a sixth-place crossing at the Florida Tech Invitational on Sept. 7. She leaves NSU with a top 5k time of 19:20.14, top 6k at 23:46.50 and three appearances at the NCAA South Regional Championships.
On the track, Bauer was a consistent performer in distance events, twice finishing fourth at the Peach Belt Championships in the 10,000m and twice sixth at PBC in the 3000m steeplechase. Before her final season at NSU was cut short after only three meets, Bauer ranked third in the 5,000m in the Southeast Region.
At the annual Sharky’s Awards, Bauer was named the 2020 NSU Scholar-Athlete of the Year and also received the Peach Belt’s Elite 15 Award. She was actively involved in the Razor’s Edge Leadership Program and was a six-time Dean’s List and Director’s List honoree, as well as being named three times to the Peach Belt Academic team, thrice to the SSC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, twice a recipient of a Division II Athletic Director’s Association Academic Achievement Award and was the first NSU track and field CoSIDA Academic All-District awardee since 2016.
A complete list of the CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-America® Women’s Track and Field/Cross Country Teams can be viewed here (PDF).
For more information about CoSIDA’s Google Cloud Academic All-America® Teams program, visit AcademicAllAmerica.com on CoSIDA.com.
