Greening Sets Big Red Standard

Photo by DSPics.com

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell senior men's hockey player Colin Greening has been named to the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America first team in the at-large category, the organization announced on Tuesday. Greening is the first men's hockey player to ever earn a spot on the first team and is the second player to twice be named to one of the Academic All-America lists.

Greening, who graduated in May with a 3.99 grade point average in applied economics and management, finished his four-year career ranked 37th all-time at Cornell in scoring, recording 55 goals and 118 total points while never missing a game over his career. He finished this season with 15 goals and 20 assists and was named both the ECAC Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year and the winner of the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award for men's hockey.

A two-time first-team All-Ivy League player, Greening served as team captain twice while also serving as an alternate captain during his sophomore season, the first sophomore to do so under the direction of head coach Mike Schafer. He helped to lead the Big Red to its first ECAC Hockey tournament title since 2005 with a 3-0 victory over Union in March, and led the Big Red to a pair of NCAA tournament appearances.

Greening signed a professional contract with the NHL's Ottawa Senators and will begin his pro career this fall in the Senators organization.

He is just the third player in Cornell men's ice hockey history to earn Academic All-America honors, and just the second to do so twice in his career. He joins Mark McRae, who earned third-team honors in 2002 and second-team accolades in 2003, in earning a pair of mentions on the Academic All-America teams. Greening is also the first Cornell student-athlete to earn a spot on the highly competitive at-large first-team since Matt McMonagle and Mitch Belisle both did so in 2007.

The at-large category includes the best and brightest student-athletes in the sports of fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, tennis and water polo.

To be eligible for Academic All-America consideration, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative GPA (grade point average) of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since the program’s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 15,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.