Gustavus senior shortstop Rachael Click has been selected to the First Team of the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America softball squad. This is the third consecutive year that Click has been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team and second consecutive year she has been a first team selection. Click, the MIAC Player of the Year and a NFCA Second Team All-America honoree, maintains a 3.91 gpa with a major in elementary education.
Click guided the Gusties to the most successful season in the program’s history as the team won the MIAC title with a record of 21-1 and posted a mark of 42-9 overall winning the NCAA Indianola Regional and finishing third at the NCAA Championships. She led the team in virtually every hitting category including batting average (.456), slugging percentage (.934), on-base percentage (.541), hits (62), RBI (53), and home runs (16). Click was the catalyst for Gustavus in the NCAA Tournament as she hit .416 with 10 hits in 24 at-bats (including two home runs and three doubles), scored 12 runs and drove in 10 runs. She was named to the Indianola Regional All-Tournament Team and the NCAA Championship Finals All-Tournament Team.
Click was a four-time All-Conference selection and a three-time All-Region honoree. She holds many Gustavus career records including games played (169), home runs (35), runs batted in (179), and slugging percentage (.835). Her career home run total of 35 ranks third all-time in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) history.
Click becomes the 76th Gustavus student athlete to be named to a CoSIDA Academic All-America team. She is the fifth Gustavus softball player to be honored following Laurie Voit (1987, 1988), Barb Jaeger (1988), Mindy Mayerchak (1988), and Christina Diller (2003). Gustavus ranks ninth among all Division III institutions in number of CoSIDA Academic All-Americans (76). Last year, the Gusties tied for the fourth highest number of Academic All-Americans among Division I, II, and III institutions with eight. Click becomes only the third student athlete at Gustavus to earn CoSIDA Academic All-America honors three times following gymnast Amanda Parker (2003, 2004, 2005) and baseball player Ben Sherer (2004, 2005, 2006).
The CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® program honors male and female student-athletes annually who have succeeded at the highest level on the playing field and in the classroom. Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America; a 2,000-member organization consisting of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.
To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative 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 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.