LIberty's Gelatt named to ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team

Liberty University’s Mike Gelatt has been selected to the 2008 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Men’s Soccer Academic All-America University Division first team for his excellence in the classroom and on the soccer field. It is the second consecutive year; the defender has been named to the first team.
 
Gelatt becomes the first Liberty student-athlete to be selected to two ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America first teams.  He is the third Liberty student-athlete to be named to multiple teams. Flames football player Jerrod Everson was selected to the NCAA Division I CoSIDA Football Academic All-America first team in 1998 and second team in 1997, and track and field standout Danielle McNaney was named to the 2005 NCAA Division I CoSIDA Women’s Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America first team and 2004 second team.
 
Last season, Gelatt became the 14th Liberty student-athlete to be named to a NCAA Division I CoSIDA Academic All-America team and the fifth student-athlete to be selected to a first team. He joined McNaney, Everson, track and cross country student-athlete Heather Sagan (2002) and track and cross country student-athlete Clendon Henderson (2008) as Liberty’s all-time first team members.
 
A native of Indianapolis, Ind., Gelatt started all 18 games on defense for the Flames this season, scoring one goal with one assist. He helped Liberty finish the season with a 10-5-3 record, its second straight year with 10 or more wins. Gelatt also earned selection to the Big South All-Conference first team for the second consecutive year, and this season was named the 2008 Big South Men’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year.  The defender closed his career by starting 60 consecutive contests for the Flames. Gelatt received a starting nod for every Liberty contest over the past three seasons.
 
Off the field, the redshirt senior has excelled in the classroom, currently maintaining a 3.83 GPA in kinesiology, pre-med curriculum, with minors in chemistry and business. In addition to being named Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year this season, Gelatt was selected to the 2007 Big South All-Academic team and received 2007 VaSID All-State Academic team mention. He has been a Dean’s List member every semester of his academic career at Liberty, and earned a 4.0 GPA in the 2006 Spring, 2005 Fall and 2004 Fall semesters.  In addition, the defender has earned academic recognition by being named to the Big South Conference Presidential Honor Roll the past four academic years.  Gelatt has recently been accepted to medical school and plans to enroll next spring.