COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Saint John’s University senior wrestler Chris Sandy (Spirit Lake, Iowa) has been selected to receive a $7,500 postgraduate scholarship from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
To qualify for an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, a student-athlete must have an overall grade-point average of 3.2 (on a 4.0 scale) or its equivalent and must have performed with distinction as a member of the varsity team in the sport in which the student-athlete was nominated. They must be in at least his or her final season of athletics eligibility for the sport they are nominated or will no longer be utilizing any remaining athletics eligibility. The student-athlete must also intend to continue academic work beyond the baccalaureate degree as a graduate student at an academically accredited graduate or degree-granting professional school.
A National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) All-American Scholar, Sandy completed his senior season at Saint John’s with a 21-7 record at 141 pounds. He won the Great Lakes Regional to earn a trip to the NCAA Division III Championships. Sandy posted six pins and was nationally ranked three times during the 2010-11 season.
A history major with an emphasis in pre-law, Sandy has a 3.98 GPA and will attend the School of Law at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., this fall. He was named the Division III recipient of NCAA’s Elite 88 Award, which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s 88 championships.
Sandy is the first Johnnie to receive an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship since Chris Palmer earned the honor in 1996. Another football student-athlete, Denis McDonough, received the scholarship in 1992. McDonough currently serves as President Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser and Palmer is an emergency room physician at Hennepin County Medical Center.
The NCAA awarded postgraduate scholarships to 29 male student-athletes from all three divisions (I, II, III) who participated in winter sports. The sports included basketball, fencing, gymnastics, indoor track and field, skiing, swimming and diving, and wrestling. Sandy was the only recipient from a Minnesota institution and just one of four from the sport of wrestling.
2010-11 Winter Awardees (pdf)