WATERVILLE, Maine -- Colby College graduate Vlad Murad (Bacau, Romania), who recently earned National Academic All-American honors, was officially named an All-American for his tennis accomplishments.
Murad joins doubles partner and fellow 2017 graduate Carl Reid as the only two men's tennis players to earn All-American status.
Murad became just the ninth Colby student-athlete to earn the prestigious College Sports Information Director's Association (CoSIDA) Academic All-America honor. He was selected to the men's at-large second team. Nine Colby student-athletes have earned 13 honors.
Murad has enjoyed a memorable few weeks. He made the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in singles play. At the banquet before NCAA play began, Murad became the first Colby student-athlete to earn the Elite 90 Award from the NCAA for academic achievement. He also earned the National Most Improved Senior Award, given out by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
In the final rankings by the ITA, Murad ended the season 20th in the country in singles. One of the criteria for making the All-American team is being ranked in the top 20 at the end of the season. Murad was eighth in the tough Northeast Region.
Murad, who graduated in May with a double major in computer science and math, had the highest grade-point average of any Colby senior athlete. He earned the Elite 90 Award for having the highest GPA of any men's tennis player at the NCAA tourney. Murad was only the 15th NESCAC athlete to earn the award since 2009-10.
Murad finished his career with a 94-45 record (44-22 singles, 50-23 doubles). He was 17-5 this past year in singles and 17-6 in doubles.
Colby's National Academic All-Americans
1980 - Mark Lane, men's basketball, second team
1982 - Kaye Cross, women's basketball, honorable mention
1983 - Kaye Cross, women's basketball, third team
1985 - Therese Langlois, women's basketball, third team
2003 - Eleanor Boyce, women's at-large (crew), first team
2003 - Nick Bayley, men's at-large (hockey), first team
2004 - Nick Bayley, men's at-large (hockey), first team
2005 - Nick Bayley, men's at-large (hockey), first team
2006 - Jason Foster, men's track/cross country, third team
2013 - Brian Desmond, men's track/cross country, third team
2014 - Brett Sahlberg, men's track/cross country, third team
2015 - Brett Sahlberg, men's track/cross country, first team
2017 - Vlad Murad, men's at-large (tennis), second team
2016-2017 CoSIDA National Academic All-American Team
Division III Men's At-Large Team
FIRST TEAM
Brady Anderson, Coe, junior, tennis, economics
Chris Bradley, Caltech, senior, water polo, mechanical engineering
Arthur Conover, Kenyon, senior, swimming, physics
Daniel Del Gallo, Southern Maine, senior, wrestling, philosophy/sociology
Mack Farley, Saint John's (Minn.), senior, golf, accounting/economics
Andrew Greenhalgh, Johns Hopkins, senior, swimming, molecular & cell biology
Stephen Jarrell, Johnson & Wales, graduate, wrestling, MBA
Michael Lagieski, Washington (Mo.), senior, swimming, mechanical engineering
Riley Lefever, Wabash, senior, wrestling, English
Jack Lindell, Denison, senior, swimming, biology
Trevor Manz, Kenyon, senior, swimming, biochemistry
Braeden Ostepchuk, Norwich, junior, hockey, mechanical engineering
Brett Stoughton, Calvin, senior, swimming, business/finance
Nicholas Willison, Washington & Jefferson, senior, swim/water polo, chemistry
Andrew Wilson, Emory, senior, swimming, physics/applied mathematics
SECOND TEAM
Hayes Burdette-Sapp, Emory, senior, swimming, physics/business
Luke Farley, Washington & Lee, junior, golf, mathematics
Nate Flynn, Augsburg, junior, hockey, accounting/finance
Corbin Gett, Benedictine (Ill.), junior, lacrosse, computer science
Andrew Henning, Case Western Reserve, senior, swimming, accounting
Kyle Jasuta, Springfield, sophomore, volleyball, finance/accounting
Aman Manji, Emory, senior, tennis, biology
Jory Mullin, Neumann, senior, hockey, accounting
Vlad Murad, Colby, senior, tennis, computer science/math
Tim Petri, WPI, senior, swimming, computer science
Adam Presler, Concordia-Moorhead, junior, wrestling, math education
George Qian, Carnegie Mellon, senior, golf, business
Harris Stolzenberg, MIT, senior, lacrosse, finance
Daniel Tripicchio, Saint John's (Minn.), senior, hockey, accounting
Jason Wesseling, Denison, junior, swimming, English/political science
THIRD TEAM
Jad Abdul-Aal, John Carroll, senior, tennis, finance/economics
Jack Bauer, WPI, sophomore, swimming, chemistry/chemical engineering
Evan Buitenhuis, Hamilton, junior, hockey, environmental studies
Brandon Conrad, Lycoming, junior, wrestling, chemistry
Lance Evans, Wartburg, junior, wrestling, biology
Michael Hoy, Adrian, senior, hockey, biology/Spanish
Tim Keith, Catholic, senior, lacrosse, biomedical engineering
Matthew Knigge, Vassar, junior, volleyball, international studies
Justin Kreiter, Luther, senior, volleyball, physical education
David Liu, Chicago, junior, tennis, economics
John Messinger, NYU, senior, wrestling, neural science
Tyler Olney, Tufts, senior, lacrosse, mechanical engineering
Ben Swarr, Messiah, junior, wrestling, Christian ministries
Tommy Thetford, Washington & Lee, junior, swimming, math
Joshua Tomazin, MIT, junior, swimming, computer science/engineering
