May 13, 2008

Duquesne University senior baseball player Derek Mechling (Homer City, Pa/Homer Center) has been named to CoSIDA's ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District II Team as voted on by the district's sports information directors. He will now be placed on the national ballot.

Mechling, a graduate student, collects his first Academic All-District honor and is a two-time Atlantic 10 Academic All-Conference honoree as well. On the field, he is batting .337 with a team-best 12 home runs and 52 runs scored. He adds a team-high 12 doubles and has 36 RBI, 13 stolen bases and a .613 slugging pct. This season he set a school record with a 17-game hitting streak and also tied individual game school records when he hit three home runs, drove in seven RBI and scored five times in a win over La Salle. In addition, he ranks second all-time at Duquesne with 24 career home runs.

It is the fourth straight year that a Duquesne baseball player has been named Academic All-District and the 12th time in the past 14 years the program has had an honoree.

To be eligible for this award, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve and maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.20 on a scale of 4.00. He must have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at the institution and must have completed at least one full academic year at the institution. Sports information directors nominate eligible athletes from their schools who are named to district teams prior to being voted upon on the national level. CoSIDA has been selecting Academic All-America teams since 1952. CoSIDA's District II covers Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.