By IWU Sports Information
BLOOMINGTON – Illinois Wesleyan senior Eric Rydell and junior Amelia Glueck have been named to the first team of the Division III Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Academic All-America Teams, respectively, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
The Wednesday selections of Glueck and Rydell bring the total to 125 for the number of Illinois Wesleyan Academic All-Americans since the program began in 1970. The complete list of IWU Academic All-Americans is available at www.iwusports.com.
Glueck (Pekin, Ill. /Tremont HS) has a 4.0 grade-point average majoring in health promotion and wellness management at Illinois Wesleyan. The NCAA Division III national outdoor long jump champion in 2016, Glueck was an outdoor and indoor All-American this year as she finished fifth in the long jump at the NCAA outdoor meet this spring (19 feet) and fourth in the long jump at NCAA national indoor meet (18 feet-11 1/4 inches).
She won the long jump at the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin outdoor meet and was second at the CCIW indoor meet and was named to all-Midwest Region (long jump) for U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association outdoor and indoor track. Three times in 2017 she was chosen CCIW women’s track or field “Athlete of the Week” and she set a school record in the outdoor long jump of 19 feet- 4 3/4 inches. She also placed eighth in the long jump at the Drake Relays, competing in a field that included six Division I athletes among the nine finalists.
Rydell (St. Joseph, St. Joseph-Ogden HS), who was a third team Academic All-American selection in 2016. has a 3.94 grade-point average as a psychology major at Illinois Wesleyan and graduated with summa cum laude honors last month.
Rydell was the winner of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Merle Chapman Award, was president of the school’s SAAC chapter and is a member of Alpha Lambda Delta scholastic honorary. He served as a laboratory assistant in the IWU Dog Psychology testing and presented an honors research paper, “Examining the Evolution of Cognition Using a Breed Differences Approach.”
Last summer, Rydell was awarded an Illinois Wesleyan Freeman Asian Internship and spent 10 weeks working in social enterprise development for Human Nature, a private firm that uses its profits to help eradicate poverty in the Philippines.
Rydell, who was the Titans’ “MVP” as a senior and junior, placed third in the outdoor CCIW with a high jump of 6 feet-6 1/4 inches after placing fifth in the event at the CCIW indoor meet.
As a junior, Rydell was an All-American with his eighth place finish in the NCAA Division III indoor meet and placed 16th in the high jump in the NCAA Division III outdoor championships. At the CCIW indoor meet, Rydell tied a meet record of 6 feet-9 1/2 inches to win the high jump and he was all-CCIW with a second place finish in the high jump at the conference outdoor meet.
