Colorado University Athletics
Gelso Earns Academic All-District Honors
BOULDER -- University of Colorado senior ski team member and national champion Matt Gelso was selected to the 2009-10 ESPN The Magazine first-team Academic All-District at-large team Thursday. Voted on by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), Gelso is also nominated for the Academic All-America at-large team that will be announced June 6.
"It's an honor to be named to the All-District academic team," Gelso said. "The fact that there are 12 sports combined into one on the at-large team makes it pretty cool to be a part of. As far as academics are concerned, I never expected any recognition; I just went to class and did my work."
Gelso, from Truckee, Calif., won seven races in his career, including the 2010 individual NCAA Championship in the 10K classical race. He became just the second American-born skier to win that race at NCAAs, where he also finished third in the freestyle race thus ending his career with 22 podium (top three) appearances, tied for fourth-most in CU history. His performance at NCAAs helped the Buffs to a second place team finish and he earned two first-team All-American honors giving him three career first-team and five overall All-America honors. He tied a CU record for a men's Nordic skier by winning five consecutive races near the end of his career. He won the CU Athlete of the Year award.
Even more impressive is what Gelso accomplished in the classroom. He graduated earlier in May with a degree in Business Finance while maintaining a career 3.78 grade point average. A model of consistency, he was a member of CU's Dean's List (3.5 or higher) and the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll (3.0 or higher) in each of his eight semesters. He was also a four-time member of the Division I National All-Academic ski team. Just prior to graduation, he was awarded the Big 12 Conference Medal award, given for accomplishments in the classroom and in athletic competition and CU's Scholar Athlete Award for holding the highest GPA among senior male student-athletes.
There are eight district at-large teams with student-athletes nominated in 12 sports for each gender including women's bowling, women's crew, men's and women's fencing, men's and women's golf, men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's ice hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's rifle, men's and women's skiing, men's and women's swimming & diving, men's and women's tennis, men's volleyball, men's and women's water polo and men's wrestling.