BATON ROUGE — LSU tennis player Tom Hand has been named the Academic All-American of the Year by GTE and the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the organization announced on Tuesday.
Hand is the first student-athlete in LSU history to be named the Academic All-American of the Year. Hand, with one more year of eligibility, graduated this past spring after only three years in the classroom. A political science major, Hand earned his degree with a 4.0 cumulative grade-point average.
Two weeks after graduation, Hand led the Tigers to the Final Four at the NCAA Tournament where LSU fell to UCLA in the semifinals.
“It is a great honor and I am very excited,” said Hand, a Plymouth, England native. “It is something that I worked very hard for and it is a great accomplishment due to some outstanding competition.”
It is the second consecutive year that Hand has been named to the academic All-American squad to go along with making the SEC Academic Honor Roll each of the past two years.
On the court, Hand was the No. 2 singles player for the Southeastern Conference champion LSU men’s tennis team. He led the team with a 31-9 overall record, with the 31 wins tying him for seventh on LSU’s single-season victory list.
The LSU co-captain earned second team All-SEC honors as well as first team All-Louisiana for his efforts on the court.
“It was nice to go one step further, from second team to first team this year,” said Hand. “I felt like this year was some of the best tennis I have played. The team played extremely well and overachieved this year.
“Michal (Chmela) and I were the only starters returning, so doing what we did this year had a big impact on me receiving this award.”
Earning a spot on the second team was senior Jonas Samuelsson who graduated in the spring with a 3.94 cumulative GPA in Operations Management. Samuelsson is also a three-time SEC Academic Honor Roll member.
The Tigers lone senior on the 1999 final four team, Samuelsson competed throughout the line up and posted a 19-14 overall record. He was named to the All-Louisiana first team by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
“Jonas was a great part of our program the past four years,” said coach Jeff Brown. “He did a great job this season stepping up as a senior and leading our team. He is very deserving of this honor.”
LSU was one of only two schools to place a player on both the first and second teams. Georgia Tech had a track and field athlete earn first team honors with a golfer making the second team.
“To have two-student athletes on the same team earn All-American honors for their performance in the classroom sets a standard for our future teams here at LSU,” Brown said. “We hope to build on this success in the coming years.”
Academic All-American of the Year – Tom Hand, LSU
First Team Chris Bender – Rhode Island (tennis) Kevin Betts – Georgia Tech (track & field) Jeff Brink – Western Michigan (tennis) Jamie Broce – Ball State (golf) Jonathan Byrd – Clemson (golf) Adan Connolly – Stanford (track & field) Dave Emanuelson – Northern Illinois (golf) Keith Hall – South Carolina (track & field) Tom Hand – LSU (tennis) Neophytos Kalgerou – Southern Illinois (track & field) Oscar Lopez – Maryland Baltimore County (tennis) Joey Pitts – Georgia (tennis) Brian Reinking – Saint Francis-Pa. (volleyball) Robert Samuelsson – Tulane (tennis) Calvin Thigpin – Mississippi (track)
Second Team Jeremy Anderson – UNLV (golf) Daniel Andersson – Virginia Commonwealth (tennis) Michael Brown – Notre Dame (track) Oliver Freelove – Illinois (tennis) Jim Gardas – Charleston Southern (golf) Dave Geesaman – Delaware (track) Russell Johnson – Tennessee (track & field) Michael Lindskog – Western Kentucky (tennis) Tony Mazzullo – Penn State (volleyball) Bryce Moulder – Georgia Tech (golf) Jonas Samuelsson – LSU (tennis) Steve Schell – Michigan State (track & field) Josh Sims – Princeton (lacrosse) Staffan Strand – Minnesota (track & field) Jakub Tebly – Illinois (tennis)
Third Team Daniel Blochwitz – Eastern Kentucky (track & field) Brad Fritsch – Campbell (golf) Troy Gorman – Cornell (lacrosse) Christian Haar – Manhatten (track & field) Matt Hartman – Sait Francis-Pa. (track & field) Ron Hess – Bucknell (track & field) Jerome Jourdan – South Carolina (tennis) Chris Maier – California (tennis) Kunj Majmudar – Harvard (tennis) Neil Mason – Long Beach State (volleyball) Jeff Nord – Brown (track & field) Timothy Surface – Tulsa (track & field) Asaf Tishler – UNLV (tennis) Nils Wiklund – Norhtern Arizona (track & field) Billy Williamson – Akron (golf)